Timer class for games
I think you should take a look at std::chrono and std::thread.

If you want to replicate, say, a VB timer or whatever (something that calls a function every second), you can do this:

template&lt;typename Func&gt;
void timer(Func func, unsigned interval)
{
    while(true)
    {
        std::this_thread

        std::this_thread::sleep_for(;
            std::chrono::milliseconds(interval));   
        func();
    }
}


Of course, you can change that into a functor and give it a bool for start and stop.

if you just want to measure the elapsed time then just use chrono

std::chrono::system_clock::time_point start=std::chrono::system_clock::now();    
//start timer 
//do stuff
std::chrono::duration&lt;double&gt; time_taken=std::chrono::system_clock::now() - start;


Don't reinvent the wheel.  If you don't have access to C++11, then all of this functionality can be used from Boost.