Talk:API GetTime

The Section™

I doubt that GetTime() returns the elapsed time in seconds from the "epoch" given by GetDate(). It's March 6th , 11:49 server time. GetDate() returns "Feb 15 2005" and GetTime() returns 14750.392. Assuming that GetTime() returns a time in seconds (which is how it looks like, since 60 seconds later the GetTime() value has increased by 60), it would mean that the GetTime() counter started today at 7:43 server time. This looks like they could have restarted the server at 7:43 (dunno, because i wasn't online that time), but I doubt that - they usually only restart the servers on tuesday, but today is a sunday. Well, does anybody have an idea how to get a time value that can be stored and compared to in later sessions? Is there some way to retrieve the current date? -- Fov 14:06, 6 Mar 2005 (EST)

There are many other time functions in WoW now, this is only good for comparing relative times for purposes of timers and such due to it's precision. Or if, for whatever reason, you wanted to report System uptime :-P -- Zlixar 18:53, 29 April 2006 (EDT)

I like how...

I like how my original documentation was *correct*, and yet, was changed several times without the editor so much as checking what they were asserting.

GetTime() returns current system uptime in seconds. GetTickCount()/1000 is a more accurate/technical way to describe it.

Stop touching this page or claiming that other's information is incorrect and removing it unless you have some very valid evidence. Seeing as A simple test can disprove the epoch theory and others, this was not done with the previous edits. Please show some restraint.

-- Zlixar 18:43, 29 April 2006 (EDT)

Time since startup?

"Contrary to what some believe, this does not return your current session time, time since launching the game, or time since the last patch. It returns the time since your own computer booted up."

NOTE: By direct experimentation, the above statement is patently inaccurate. On a Windows 10 system just booted, GetTime() / (86400) - that denominator being the number of seconds in a minute times the number of minutes in an hour times the number of hours in a day - consistently returned a value greater than 67 (indicating that the system hadn't been booted in more than 67 days). It's not the time since game launch as "game launch" couldn't possibly be earlier than system reboot. An update to Windows 10 was applied last week, so it's not gime since last system revision. My Windows 10 key was activated more than two years ago on this machine, so it can't be time since key activation. I don't know precisely from what event GetTime() returns the number of seconds since, but it is not system boot time, at least not in all cases in Windows 10. This does not affect the general use of GetTime() in interval checking, but it might be useful for someone to find out what is really happenining here. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Mltco78dhs (talk · contr).

Please check whether the value returned by this function matches the "Up time" shown in the Performance tab of the Windows 10 Task Manager. — foxlit (talk) 18:07, 21 March 2018 (UTC)

Listen, Foxtit, first of all, that time is NOT the "time since your own computer last booted up" - by direct experimentation (just now), I not only shut down my computer, but switched off the power and removed the power cable. My Task Manager still reports the CPU UP TIME (not the system up time) as 67-odd days ago. Second, that doesn't make what I posted incorrect. GetTime(), on Windows 10 does NOT return "time since your own computer booted up" at all. Before you go all super-user, wiki-geek on this again, try fucking doing it yourself first. You, specifically, are why I stopped trying to fix this rancid shit that is WoWPedia months back. I don't know if it's that you've pissed on this particular post and can't stand for someone else to or what, but get the fuck over yourself and stop vandalizing corrections. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Mltco78dhs (talk · contr).

wowpedia is no rancid shit, kthx. Xporc (talk) 20:09, 21 March 2018 (UTC)

So, several things:

1. I agree that the "time since your own computer booted up" wording is unfortunate, and you might find that it doesn't actually appear in the current version of the article.
2. Thank you for confirming that GetTime() matches Task Manager's "up time". I think this makes it reasonable to refer to the return value as "system uptime," especially since we just need to establish a relatively stable reference point (referring to the return value as "time in seconds since some arbitrary point in the past that remains fixed while the WoW client is running" would be rather inconvenient). You might disagree with Windows' definition of uptime, but I don't think splitting hairs trying to distinguish between "CPU UP TIME" and "system up time" makes any sense.
3. Your "direct experimentation" is evidently confused by Windows 10's fast boot feature, which hibernates the system state when you select "shutdown", and restores it (rather than performing a fresh boot) when you turn on the PC, preserving the uptime counter. If you instead opt to "Restart", both the task manager and this API function will show something much closer to 0.
4. I have tested this myself prior to touching your "correction".
5. Your language in these comments (and many others in your contribution history) is simply not acceptable on Wowpedia. You're more than welcome to contribute improvements to the API documentation, but please do so without shitting on everyone else's contributions, the personal attacks, and the constant rudeness in edit summaries and on talk pages. To emphasize this point, I'm going to block you for 7 days, and warn you that continuing with this behavior will result in longer blocks in the future.

— foxlit (talk) 22:09, 21 March 2018 (UTC)