[Python-Dev] PEP 410 (Decimal timestamp): the implementation is ready for a review (original) (raw)

Dirkjan Ochtman dirkjan at ochtman.nl
Wed Feb 15 10:38:47 CET 2012

On Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 10:11, "Martin v. Löwis" <martin at v.loewis.de> wrote:

My primary concern with the PEP is adding to users confusion when they have to handle (at least) 5 different types[*] that represent time in Python. I agree with Barry here (despite having voiced support for using Decimal before): datetime.datetime is the right data type to represent time stamps. If it means that it needs to be improved before it can be used in practice, then so be it - improve it. I think improving datetime needs to go in two directions: a) arbitrary-precision second fractions. My motivation for proposing/supporting Decimal was that it can support arbitrary precision, unlike any of the alternatives (except for using numerator/denominator pairs). So just adding nanosecond resolution to datetime is not enough: it needs to support arbitrary decimal fractions (it doesn't need to support non-decimal fractions, IMO). b) distinction between universal time and local time. This distinction is currently blurred; there should be prominent API to determine whether a point-in-time is meant as universal time or local time. In terminology of the datetime documentation, there needs to be builtin support for "aware" (rather than "naive") UTC time, even if that's the only timezone that comes with Python.

+1. And adding stuff to datetime to make it easier to get a unix timestamp out (as proposed by Victor before, IIRC) would also be a good thing in my book. I really want to be able to handle all my date+time needs without ever importing time or calendar.

Cheers,

Dirkjan

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