[Python-ideas] Add time.time_ns(): system clock with nanosecond resolution

[Guido van Rossum]

I'd like to have time.time_ns() -- this is most parallel to st_mtime_ns.

On Sun, Oct 15, 2017 at 2:59 AM, Victor Stinner <victor.stinner at gmail.com>
wrote:

> > Might it make more sense to have a parallel *module* that works with a
> different base data type rather than parallel functions within the existing
> API?
>
> I asked about adding new functions to 4 different modules: os, resource,
> signal, time.
>
> For example, I dislike the idea of having os and os_ns modules. We already
> have os.stat() which returns time as seconds and nanoseconds (both at the
> same time). There is also os.utime() which accepts time as seconds *or*
> nanoseconds: os.utime (path, times=seconds) or os.utime(path,
> ns=nanoseconds).
>
> If we had a time_ns module, would it only contain 4 clocks or does it have
> to duplicate the full API? If yes, it is likely to be a mess to maintain
> them. How will user choose between time and time_ns? What if tomorrow
> clocks get picosecond resolution? (CPU TSC also has sub-nanosecond
> resolution, but OS API uses timespec, 1 ns res.) Add a third module?
>
> I prefer to leave all "time functions" in the "time module".
>
> For example, I don't think that we need to add time.nanosleep() or
> time.sleep_ns(), since the precision loss starts after a sleep of 104 days.
> Who cares of 1 nanosecond after a sleep of 104 days?
>
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-- 
--Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido)
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