time.sleep(1) sometimes runs for 200 seconds under windows

[Peter Hansen]

Magnus Lycka wrote:
> With an operating system such as Windows, this is
> probably something you can expect to happen, although
> I'm surprised if such long lag times as 200 s are typical.

No way.  I mean, I'm the biggest critic of Windows operating systems 
when used in realtime environments (at least with my customers), but 
there's no way you should "probably expect a 200s delay to happen".

(You can't guarantee it won't, but seeing it on a regular basis is 
sending a clear message that something *else* is going on.  Dennis' 
guess seems a good one.)

> If you need real time characteristics, you should
> probably use a real time operating system, not Windows.

Quite true.  I doubt the OP needs that though.

-Peter