[Python-Dev] time.wallclock()

[Michael Foord]

On 01/11/2010 14:00, Kristján Valur Jónsson wrote:
>
> Working on Condition variables and semaphores (see 
> http://bugs.python.org/issue10260) I noticed that time.time() was 
> being used to correctly time blocking system calls.  On windows, I 
> would have used time.clock() but reading the documentation made me 
> realize that on Unix that would return CPU seconds which are useless 
> when blocking.  However, on Windows, time.clock() has a much higher 
> resolution, apart from being a "wallclock" time, and is thus better 
> suited to timing that time.time().   In addition, time.time() has the 
> potential of giving unexpected results if someone messes with the 
> system clock.
>
> I was wondering if it were helpful to have a function such as 
> time.wallclock() which is specified to give relative wallclock time 
> between invocations or an approximation thereof, to the system's best 
> ability?
>
> We could then choose this to be an alias of time.clock() on windows 
> and time.time() on any other machine, or even have custom 
> implementations on machines that support such a notion.
>

I think this would be helpful. Having to do platform specific checks to 
choose which time function to use is annoying.

Michael

> Kristján
>
>
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