Delta time not being calculated properly

Question

I am trying to create a game in which objects spawn on a timer then start moving. I would like to keep the frame rate independent of the game speed, so I have tried to implement delta time:

lastTime = thisTime;
thisTime = (int) SystemClock.currentThreadTimeMillis();
deltaTime = thisTime - lastTime;

for (int i = 0;i < objectList.size();i++) {
    objectList.get(i).updatePosition(deltaTime);
    objectList.get(i).display(bitmapCanvas);
}

And my updatePosition method:

public void updatePosition(float deltaTime) {
    this.y += 10/1000 * deltaTime;

}

From my understanding, the rate (10 in this case) should be divided by 1000 since deltaTime is in milliseconds, but I have tried it with various other values as well, and the objects just spawn on the screen and do not move. I had no issues making them move before trying to implement interpolation.

If it helps any, I was logging the delta time and it was usually around 20/30. Is this normal?

I have looked at probably 5 or 6 questions on GameDev and a couple on Stack Overflow but I think I must be misunderstanding something as I cannot get this to work.

Answer 1

So this doesn't appear unanswered, Jon Skeet was (obviously) correct:

The calculation of 10/1000 is being performing (at compile time) in integer arithmetic, so it's 0... Try 10/1000f, or just 0.01f.