For a while now I've been using the following function: (defun current-time-as-float () (let ((tm (current-time))) (+ (* 65536.0 (nth 0 tm)) (nth 1 tm) (/ (nth 2 tm) 1000000.0))))
(current-time-as-float) --> 1129642168.966545 It returns the current time as a single floating-point number. I find it very convenient because its return value can be manipulated with normal arithmetic functions, such as subtraction. This is useful for measuring of passage of time, as well as for recording time stamps. The truncated value can also be passed to external code that expects the Unix-style number of seconds since Epoch. While the above function wasn't hard to write for me, it probably would be for a beginner. I'm not proposing that you include the above function as-is, but such functionality in some form, either as an optional argument to current-time, or as a separate (more aptly-named) function would be useful. Later, functions like format-time-string could start accepting such floating-point arguments as well. _______________________________________________ Emacs-devel mailing list Emacs-devel@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-devel