[Python-Dev] this is why we shouldn't call it a "monotonic clock" (was: PEP 418 is too divisive and confusing and should be postponed)

[Victor Stinner]

> | This is the original reason for the original defect (issue 10278)
> | unix' clock() doesn't actually provide a clock in this sense, it provides a resource usage metric.
>
> Yeah:-( Its help says "Return the CPU time or real time since [...]".
> Two very different things, as demonstrated. I suppose neither goes
> backwards, but this seems like a classic example of the "useless
> monotonic clock" against which Greg Ewing railed.
>
> And why? For one thing, because one can't inspect its metadata to find
> out what it does.

Should I add another key to the result of
time.get_clock_info('clock')? How can we define "clock on Windows"
(almost monotonic and steady clock) vs "clock on UNIX" (CPU time) with
a flag or a value?

Victor