[Python-Dev] float atime/mtime/ctime - a bad idea?

[Martin v. Loewis]

barry@python.org (Barry A. Warsaw) writes:

> But you may end up ping ponging between floats and ints as you import
> new libraries into your app.  If, as you surmise, most code won't
> care, then that won't be a real problem.  

With Guido's most recent suggestion (put ints into the tuple), it is
even more likely that nothing will break if floats are activated (we
should investigate the two known incidents to find out whether they
were using the tuple interface).

>         # do something requiring float times

I think this is a central point here: Why would anything *require*
float times? If the system does not support subsecond timestamps, or
Python does not expose that (e.g. Windows), you will get floats, but
you won't get fractions of a second.

> Maybe it won't matter in practice, but global state like that always
> tickles the gag reflex in me. ;)

I completely agree about reflexes and general feelings. However, we
assume that this indeed won't matter in practice.

Regards,
Martin