date and time comparison how to

[noydb]

I guess I get there eventually!  
This seems to work

    pdf_timeStamp = time.strftime("%m%d%y%H%M%S",time.localtime(os.path.getmtime(pdf)))
    intermediateTime = time.strptime(pdf_timeStamp, "%m%d%y%H%M%S")
    pdfFile_compareTime = time.mktime(intermediateTime)

(and I'll do the same to the user entered date-n-time and then compare)


Lastly, so can anyone chime in and tell me if this is a good method or not?  Is there a better way?