[fpc-devel] NowUTC in the RTL

[Felipe Monteiro de Carvalho]

2011/12/9 Tomas Hajny <XHajT03 at hajny.biz>:
> Is it preferred to return ticks (dependent on various stuff), or something
> like GetMsCount (as already existing in unit Dos)?

I would like to define it like this:

"FPGetTickCount returns the amount of ticks since an unspecified
initial time. This initial time is unknown, but is fixed for the
entire duration of the application. Ticks are time intervals and all
of them have the same duration, but their exact meaning in terms of
real world units like milliseconds is unspecified. FPGetTickCount is
not affected by timezones and also not by the user changing the system
clock."

So it matches Windows.GetTickCount well but still is flexible enough
to be implemented in other platforms.

> I don't think it needs a different name, GetTickCount is OK. Why would you need that ? Units are namespaces, after all.

Yes, but legacy applications with both SysUtils and Windows in the
uses clause might suddently start using the SysUtils routine ... In
Lazarus we tried something like that and we got a couple of problems
very fast by units which suddenly started using the new GetTickCount
... it had to do with our GetTickCount returning 64-bits and the
Windows one returning 32-bits... so that's why I would recommend
FPGetTickCount: QWord

-- 
Felipe Monteiro de Carvalho