On Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 8:22 AM, Alexander Walters <tritium-list@sdamon.com> wrote:

1. no one will expect the datetime module is_dst to map to the posix mktime function. If they expect a mapping to the posix api, they are using the time module. I think you are the only one who thought that. Just because another api uses a clear term with one set of semantics, does not mean we cant use the clear term with a different set of semantics.

well, yes.

but:

"Is this instance of time DST? Oh, it has a member attribute 'is_dst', let me print that and see..."

this is extending the use-case of the flag -- maybe a good idea, but not the original intent. As I understnd it the original intent is only to disambiguate the "the same time twice" case.

"I need to tell python this time I am inputting is DST. ...I will pass True to the is_dst argument"

why do you need to do that??? the point here is that you use the timezones definition od DST -- you don't need to think about it, except in the ambiguous case -- in which case, are you thining "Daylight vs Standard Time" or "first interval, or ???

"intuitive" means "works like I expect" -- but eveyone expects different things....

"I am in the northern hemisphere and need to construct a date in the middle of july. My nation-state observes DST. ...what the hell do i do with a 'first' argument?"

nothing -- there is no ambiguity in the middle of July.

-Chris

Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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