Can we improve the resolution of Time>millisecondClockValue?

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Louis LaBrunda

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Aug 9, 2012, 4:36:57 PM8/9/12

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Hi All,

The current resolution of Time>millisecondClockValue is 15ms in Windows. I'm not sure what it is in UNIX/Linux. I expect it is 15ms in Windows because of the use of the Windows GetTickCount function in the VA Smalltalk Windows VM. Which even though it answers milliseconds, it is only updated every 15ms.

The use of the timeGetTime function (under Windows) could improve the resolution to 1ms. I think Squeak does something like this.

It would also be nice if the interrupt timer code could be changed to 1ms resolution.

We can currently issue:

Delay interruptPeriod: 1.

But the resolution only drops to about 15ms.

I currently have programs where I set the interrupt period to 10 (yea it really is 15) and this makes a big difference in the throughput of these programs.

I don't think anyone is currently doing any multimedia work with VA Smalltalk but if someone did, having greater timer resolution would be helpful.