QueryPerformanceCounter() is not monotonic on a multiprocessor computer on Windows XP. Extract of its documentation:

"Remarks

On a multiprocessor computer, it should not matter which processor is called. However, you can get different results on different processors due to bugs in the basic input/output system (BIOS) or the hardware abstraction layer (HAL). To specify processor affinity for a thread, use the SetThreadAffinityMask function." 

See also:
http://bytes.com/topic/python/answers/527849-time-clock-going-backwards

time.steady(strict-True) (or "time.monotonic()"? the function name is not decided yet :§)) should use GetTickCounter64(), or GetTickCounter().

GetTickCount64() was added to Windows Seven / Server 2008. GetTickCount() overflows after 49 days.

QueryPerformanceCounter() has a better resolution than
GetTickCount[64]() and so it's maybe better to keep it for time.steady(strict-False)?

I vote for adding just one function to the 'time' module: monotonic(),
which should exist only if the host OS support it.  

And I don't see the point of having 'steady()' at all.

A monotonic clock is not suitable for measuring durations, as it may still jump forward. A steady clock will not.

> A monotonic clock is not suitable for measuring durations, as it may still jump forward. A steady clock will not.

Well, Victor's implementation of 'steady()' is just a tiny wrapper, which uses 'monotonic()' or 'time()' if the former is not available.  Hence 'steady()' is a misleading name.

Yury Selivanov wrote:
> 
> Yury Selivanov <yselivanov@gmail.com> added the comment:
> 
>> A monotonic clock is not suitable for measuring durations, as it may still jump forward. A steady clock will not.
> 
> Well, Victor's implementation of 'steady()' is just a tiny wrapper, which uses 'monotonic()' or 'time()' if the former is not available.  Hence 'steady()' is a misleading name.

Agreed.

I think time.monotonic() is a better name.

I'm closing this issue as a duplicate... of the PEP 418. See the python-dev mailing list for discussions on this PEP.

New changeset 76d2e0761d18 by Victor Stinner in branch 'default':
Issue #14428, #14397: Implement the PEP 418
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/76d2e0761d18