[Python-ideas] Why not picoseconds?

[Eric V. Smith]

On 10/15/2017 3:13 PM, Stephan Houben wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I propose multiples of the Planck time, 5.39 × 10 ^−44 s.
> Unlikely computers can be more accurate than that anytime soon.
>
> On a more serious note, I am not sure what problem was solved by 
> moving from
> double to a fixed-precision format.
>
> I do know that it now introduced the issue of finding
> the correct base unit of the fixed-precision format.

 From Victor's original message, describing the current functions using 
64-bit binary floating point numbers (aka double). They lose precision:

"The problem is that Python returns time as a floatting point number
which is usually a 64-bit binary floatting number (in the IEEE 754
format). This type starts to loose nanoseconds after 104 days."

Eric.

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