How to call a function from within the same class activity in Kotlin? - How to loop CountDowntimer from its own class

Question

What I am trying to do is restart the CountdownTimer object when it is finished. Therefor I put it inside a procedure 'goCountdown', so onFinish() it calls itself. However this gives the following problems:

• A procedure goCountdown cannot be called from within the same class
• B activity text cannot be updated with time from outside the MainActivity class.

See references '!!! nr !!!' in code below:

1. the 'goCountdown() function is found (recognized/doesnt give an error) at place 1 even though the procedure is placed outside the class.
2. when goCountdown is placed inside the class at nr 2 it is not found at place nr 1 (gives error).
3. As it only works outside of the class, it is now impossible to update the text on the activity on every tick because the MainActivity isnt accessible.

Questions:

• Why does Kotlin / Android Studio not recognize the 'goCountdown()' function when it is placed WITHIN the same activity class?
• Even if that will work, is there a way to acces the texts on the MainActivity from a top level procedure?

Besides my goal to make the timer loop I am trying to understand why it is not working. Thanks for explaining or pointing me to the explanation.

    class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
        override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)

            tapAction.setOnClickListener{
                boTimeRunning =  !boTimeRunning
                if(boTimeRunning ){
                    goCountdown() //!!! 1 !!! its fine to call it from here when its outside the class
                }
            }
            //!!! 2 !!!but if fun goCountdown() block is placed here, it is not seen at !!! 1 !!! place
        }
    }

    fun goCountdown(){
        object : CountDownTimer1(timeSettings_set * 1000, 1000){
            override fun onTick(p0: Long) {
                MainActivity.txtBig.text = "sometext" //!!! 3 !!!this doesnt work, also when MainActivity is declared as a variable object.
            }
            override fun onFinish() {
                goCountdown() //primary goal: restart the timer when its done
            }
        }.start()
    }

Answer 1

Is txtBig kotlin synthetic view or a local variable or global variable?

if txtBig is kotlin synthetic view, you should be able to call it.
if txtBig isn't kotlin synthetic veiw, try this code.

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
    private lateinit var txtBigcopy: TextView

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)

        txtBig = findViewById<TextView>(R.id.txt_big) // Your id in xml
        txtBigcopy = txtBig

        tapAction.setOnClickListener{
            boTimeRunning = !boTimeRunning
            if(boTimeRunning ){
                goCountdown()
            }
        }
    }

    fun goCountdown(){
        object : CountDownTimer1(timeSettings_set * 1000, 1000){
            override fun onTick(p0: Long) {
                txtBigcopy.text = "sometext"
            }
            override fun onFinish() {
                goCountdown()
            }
        }.start()
    }
}