[Python-Dev] PEP 418: Add monotonic clock (original) (raw)

Victor Stinner victor.stinner at gmail.com
Tue Mar 27 02:16:52 CEST 2012

I started to write the PEP 418 to clarify the notions of monotonic and steady clocks.

The PEP is a draft and everyone is invited to contribute!

time.steady() doesn't fit the benchmarking use case: it looks like we have to decide between stability and clock resolution.

QueryPerformanceCounter() has a good resolution for benchmarking, but it is not monotonic and so GetTickCount64() would be used for time.steady(). GetTickCount64() is monotonic but has only a resolution of 1 millisecond.

We might add a third new function which provides the most accurate clock with or without a known starting point. We cannot use QueryPerformanceCounter() to enhance time.time() resolution because it has an unknown starting point.

Victor

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