Accuracy of time measurements

[mksg]

Hi,
I'm trying to accurately measure time interval between events I observe.
I do this by creating a Message Box and then pressing the Enter key or Mouse Click on Ok.
However, many times it seems the reported times on the clipboard are very different than I expect, often between 600 and 1000 milliseconds different.
The flash of the screen seems correct when hit Enter (i.e. it looks the the Message Box is being clicked at the right time and the program responds to my enters in a prompt matter).
Any idea what I'm missing?
Thanks!
Mark S.

The pasted code below is for message box that the user would click six times when they observe the event 6 times.
I tried the TIME_ feature (pasted below) and the TIME_MACRO feature (not pasted). Both seemed to give inconsistent results.

1 | RUN ACTION | MESSAGE PROMPT | CLICK START ::SPEED::0

2 | RUN ACTION | DEFINE DECIMAL VARIABLE | %DECIMAL1%::%TIME_S%

3 | RUN ACTION | DEFINE DECIMAL VARIABLE | %DECIMAL2%::%TIME_MS%

4 | RUN ACTION | MESSAGE PROMPT | CLICK two::SPEED::0

5 | RUN ACTION | DEFINE DECIMAL VARIABLE | %DECIMAL3%::%TIME_S%

6 | RUN ACTION | DEFINE DECIMAL VARIABLE | %DECIMAL4%::%TIME_MS%

7 | RUN ACTION | MESSAGE PROMPT | CLICK three:: CLICK::0

8 | RUN ACTION | DEFINE DECIMAL VARIABLE | %DECIMAL5%::%TIME_S%

9 | RUN ACTION | DEFINE DECIMAL VARIABLE | %DECIMAL6%::%TIME_MS%

10 | RUN ACTION | MESSAGE PROMPT | CLICK four:: CLICK::0

11 | RUN ACTION | DEFINE DECIMAL VARIABLE | %DECIMAL7%::%TIME_S%

12 | RUN ACTION | DEFINE DECIMAL VARIABLE | %DECIMAL8%::%TIME_MS%

13 | RUN ACTION | MESSAGE PROMPT | CLICK five::CLICK::0

14 | RUN ACTION | DEFINE DECIMAL VARIABLE | %DECIMAL9%::%TIME_S%

15 | RUN ACTION | DEFINE DECIMAL VARIABLE | %DECIMAL10%::%TIME_MS%

16 | RUN ACTION | MESSAGE PROMPT | CLICK six::CLICK::0

17 | RUN ACTION | DEFINE DECIMAL VARIABLE | %DECIMAL15%::%TIME_S%

18 | RUN ACTION | DEFINE DECIMAL VARIABLE | %DECIMAL16%::%TIME_MS%

19 | RUN ACTION | COPY TO CLIPBOARD | %DECIMAL1%.%DECIMAL2%a%DECIMAL3%.%DECIMAL4%b%DECIMAL5%.%DECIMAL6%c%DECIMAL7%.%DECIMAL8%d%DECIMAL9%.%DECIMAL10%e%DECIMAL15%.%DECIMAL16%

[Steve]

Hi mksg,

A few factors contribute to timing accuracy when using MMM and it can depend entirely on the current state of your running OS environment.
MMM takes and makes a lot of calls from and to the local environment depending on the condition your running in MMM. Some of the conditions are pulled directly from your Windows host outside of MMM entirely. If your calculating to the ms you may seem variation based on how your OS is performing at the time.

With the macro you've used in your example i'd guess your variation is based on you physically left clicking and releasing the mouse cursor over these message box's. Its probably not a great metric to determine run time accuracy. I'd cut that actual click out. I'd bet money that your not going to be able to click the same speed to the 100's ms each time. It will make getting some stable metrics difficult.

What exactly are you trying to achieve? Do you need an accurate measurement for a specific reason in your macro?