On Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:32:36 +0000 Marc-Andre Lemburg <report@bugs.python.org> wrote: > * Please add the fallback solutions from the time module in case gettimeofday() is not available. You cannot assume that "all modern POSIX systems" implement that API - it was introduced in POSIX 2001 and Python 2.x still supports OSes that were released prior to that year. POSIX as a standard tends to follow, not lead. The gettimeofday() call dates back over 20 years in BSD. time.time() falls back on ftime() and then time(). ftime() was added to the POSIX spec at the same time as gettimeofday() and is now deprecated. time() probably doesn't have enough resolution. I'd have to be pointed to a specific platform which doesn't support gettimeofday() but which is supported by python. Otherwise, I'd be coding blind. Ross