a collection of lightweight TypeScript packages for AT Protocol, the protocol powering Bluesky
atproto
bluesky
typescript
npm
docs(time-ms): explain better why this package exists
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packages/misc/time-ms/README.md
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packages/misc/time-ms/README.md
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# @atcute/time-ms
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high precision system time, returns in microseconds (messed up the package name!)
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high-precision absolute system time in microseconds (messed up the package name!)
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```sh
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npm install @atcute/time-ms
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```
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JavaScript doesn't provide a built-in way to get the current wall-clock time with microsecond
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precision. `Date.now()` only goes to milliseconds, and the high-resolution alternatives
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(`performance.now()`, `process.hrtime()`) are monotonic clocks — great for measuring durations, but
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they don't tell you the actual time.
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this package calls the platform's real-time clock directly via native bindings or FFI
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(`clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME)` on Unix, `GetSystemTimePreciseAsFileTime` on Windows) to return the
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current time as microseconds since the Unix epoch. falls back to `Date.now() * 1000` when native
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access is unavailable.
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## usage
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```ts
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import { now } from '@atcute/time-ms';
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import { now, hasNative } from '@atcute/time-ms';
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const timestamp = now();
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// ^ 1766739339478426
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// returns microseconds since unix epoch
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hasNative; // whether the native module is available for the current runtime
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```