# Ticking times
A time that keeps itself current: how long a job has been running, how long ago a message came. The page writes the moment; the library writes the words and keeps them right.
## Examples
A `time` whose `datetime` is the moment - ISO, with its zone. With `data-elapsed` it shows the time since then as a clock, `m:ss` under an hour and `h:mm:ss` after; with `data-ago` it says how long ago it was, or how soon it comes, in the page's language, and its `title` holds the full moment. One ticker serves every one on the page: each second while an elapsed time is there, else every 30 seconds, and none while the page is hidden. The page's own words stand inside until the library starts.
```html
The backup has been running for .
The last message came ; the next tour leaves .
```
## Accessibility
- A ticking time is never read out as it ticks: a reader hears it where it is, as it is at that moment.
- Say a wait that matters in words once, where it starts - the time beside it is for the eye.