[Python-Dev] proposal: add basic time type to the standard library

[M.-A. Lemburg]

"M.-A. Lemburg" wrote:
> 
> In order to make mxDateTime subtypes of this new type we'd need to
> make sure that the datetime type uses a true struct subset of what
> I have in DateTime objects now:
> 
> typedef struct {
>     PyObject_HEAD
> 
>     /* Representation used to do calculations */
>     long absdate;               /* number of days since 31.12. in the year 1 BC
>                                    calculated in the Gregorian calendar. */
>     double abstime;             /* seconds since 0:00:00.00 (midnight)
>                                    on the day pointed to by absdate */
> 
>  ...lots of broken down values needed to assure roundtrip safety...
> 
> }
> 
> Depending on the size of PyObject_HEAD, this should meet Jim
> Fultons requirements (the base type would of course not implement
> the "..." part :-).

I forgot to mention that there is another object type in mxDateTime
too: DateTimeDelta. That's the type needed to represent the time 
difference between two DateTime instances, or what people usually
call "time" :-)

It has the following type "signature":

typedef struct {
    PyObject_HEAD
    double seconds;             /* number of delta seconds */

...some broken down values needed to assure roundtrip safety...

}

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
CEO eGenix.com Software GmbH
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