[Python-Dev] Proposing an alternative to PEP 410

[Guido van Rossum]

On Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 3:47 PM, Larry Hastings <larry at hastings.org> wrote:
> On 02/23/2012 02:35 PM, Victor Stinner wrote:
> > For os.stat(), you should use the UTC timezone, not a naive datetime.
>
> Why is that more appropriate?  IIUC, timestamps ignore leap seconds and
> strictly represent "seconds since the epoch".  In order to correctly return
> a time in the UTC time zone we'd have to adjust for leap seconds.  Naive
> datetimes bask in their happy ignorance of such complexities.

You seem to have the meaning of "ignore leap seconds" backwards. POSIX
timestamps are not *literally* seconds since the epoch. They are
*non-leap* seconds since the epoch, which is just what you want. IOW
the simple calculation ignoring leap seconds (found e.g. in
calendar.py) will always produce the right value.

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido)