Telling time in Python

From GeoMod

I need to give my pedestrian agents a flow rate into the simulation. In order to do this I need to tell how much time has elapsed so I can trigger their appearance. It calls the time module using the system clock

#---master_crono determines the length of the simulation
#   it will be added to to give more functions such as controling the events of
#    the entire simulation
import time

class master_chrono:
    def _init_ (self):
        print time.time()
        
    def tock(self,simsec,timemx):
        self.start=time.time()
        print 'the start time is'
        print self.start
        self.simsec=simsec
        self.switch=1
        hand=self.start
        total_simtime= self.simsec*timemx
        
        while self.switch ==1:
            if time.time()== hand + 1.0:
                print time.time()
                print 'update'
                hand=hand+1.0
                if time.time()== self.start+ total_simtime:
                    print 'stop event'
                    self.switch=0
                    print 'total simulation time'
                    print total_simtime
                    print 'seconds'
                    return self.switch 

Calling the class inside the simulation Right now I pass the number of seconds I want the simulation to run and a multiplier in case I want to speed up or slow down

##---simulation time setup
run=1
stop=0

tick=master_chrono()
sim_master_clock=run

#---test setup 
testcounter=10

while testcounter <> 0:
# add a ped every #sec
    while sim_master_clock <> stop:
        sim_master_clock=tick.tock(5,1.0)
        
    people.append(walker(uniform(putfolkxmin,putfolkxmax),1,uniform(putfolkzmin,putfolkzmax)))
    
    if tick.tock(1,1.0) == 0:
        testcounter=testcounter-1