timezones and time_t

[Eyal Lotem]

MrBlueSky wrote:

> Hi,
> I've got a Python application that (as well as lots of other stuff!)
> has to translate time_t values into strings in the TZ of the users
> choice.  Looking at the Python Library Reference, I can see no platform
> independent way of setting the TZ that time.localtime() returns -
> tzset() is marked as only available on Unix and that is indeed the
> case.
> 
> Is there really nothing "shipped as standard"?  I'm using Python 2.4.3
> on Windows XP.
> 
> If not, what's the de-facto standard... pytz?
> 
> Ta!
> 
> John

All of the timezone stuff in the standard C/Python libraries is very badly
named and the use of implicit 'TZ' variables in various functions without a
hint in their __doc__ is also annoying.

Basically, I recommend just doing your own TZ translation:
time.asctime(time.gmtime(time.time() + TZOFFSET))


My name recommendations for alternative time interface (t=float-time_t,
tt=timetuple, local_ prefix=function converts via tz parameters):

time.time -> time.gmt
        Return the current GMT as a float time_t

time.local_t -> time.
        Return the current Local Time as a float time_t
        If argument is given, convert it to local format.

time.asctime -> time.str
        Return the given time_t as a string. No conversions done.

time.ctime -> time.local_str 
        Remove in favor of: time.str(time.local_t)

time.mktime -> time.t_of_tt
time.gmtime -> time.tt_of_t
time.localtime -> Remove in favor of: time.tt_of_t(time.local_t)

These functions above will prevent a lot of confusion, because you are
forced to either use: time.local_t or time.gmt, and thus you are aware of
what the time_t you are using means. When you use time.str no implicit
conversion takes place as in time.ctime, and confusion is avoided.

Do you think this is worth a PEP?