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

[Jim Fulton]

Guido van Rossum wrote:
> 
> [me]
> > > I wonder how often this is needed.  The only occurrences of year() in
> > > the entire Zope source that I found are in various test routines.
> 
> [Jim]
> > These methods and others are used a lot in presentation code,
> > which tends to be expressed in DTML or ZPT.
> >
> > It's not uncommon to select/catagorize things by year or month.
> >
> > I think most people would find individual date-part methods
> > a lot more natural than tuples.
> 
> OK, that explains a lot.  For this context I agree, although I think
> they should probably appear as (computed) attributes rather than
> methods.  Properties seem perfect.

That's fine with me.

> > > I imagine
> > > that once we change strftime() to accept an abstract time object,
> > > you'll never need to call either timetuple() or year() -- strftime()
> > > will do it for you.
> >
> > Maybe, if I use strftime, but I don't use strftime all that much.
> 
> Maybe you should. :-)

I do when I can. But it often doesn't meet my needs.
 
> > I can certainly think of even formatting cases (e.g. internationalized
> > dates) where it's not adequate.
> 
> Then a super-strftime() should be invented that *is* enough, rather
> than fumbling with hand-coded solutions.

I think we don't need a one-size-fits-all all-powerful date-time
formating solution. ;)

Jim

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