[Python-Dev] Reworking the GIL

[John Arbash Meinel]

Sturla Molden wrote:
> Antoine Pitrou skrev:
>> It certainly is.
>> But once again, I'm no Windows developer and I don't have a native
>> Windost host
>> to test on; therefore someone else (you?) has to try.
>>   
> I'd love to try, but I don't have VC++ to build Python, I use GCC on
> Windows.
> 
> Anyway, the first thing to try then is to call
>  
>   timeBeginPeriod(1);
> 
> once on startup, and leave the rest of the code as it is. If 2-4 ms is
> sufficient we can use timeBeginPeriod(2), etc. Microsoft is claiming
> Windows performs better with high granularity, which is why it is 10 ms
> by default.
> 
> 
> Sturla

That page claims:
  Windows uses the lowest value (that is, highest resolution) requested
  by any process.

I would posit that the chance of having some random process on your
machine request a high-speed timer is high enough that the overhead for
Python doing the same is probably low.

John
=:->