Antoine Pitrou <solipsis@pitrou.net> writes:
On Wed, 28 Jan 2015 09:42:16 +1100 Ben Finney <ben+python@benfinney.id.au> wrote:
The [minimum and maximum] values are useful to know exactly how far in the future [and past] one can store date values in Python. It is important that this be discoverable programmatically because the maximum [or minimum] values might change in future versions of the ‘datetime’ library.
So what? Again, the values wouldn't change in Python. It would only be the PostgreSQL mapping that would change.
That's the point, though. We should at least allow for “datetime.date.max” and “datetime.date.infinitely_far_in_the_future” to be distinct, and allow for the former to change value in a backward-compatible way. So the maxima and minima should map to their specific points in time in both directions between PostgreSQL and Python. “Maximum” does not mean “infinite”, and conflating them robs us not only of the backward-compatible ability to change the maximum in future, but also of the ability to later add a distinct value to represent infinity. -- \ “You don't need a book of any description to help you have some | `\ kind of moral awareness.” —Dr. Francesca Stavrakoloulou, bible | _o__) scholar, 2011-05-08 | Ben Finney