[Numpy-discussion] timezones and datetime64

[Dave Hirschfeld]

>
>

Sorry, having trouble keeping up with this thread!
Comments, specific to my (limited) use-cases are inline:

Chris Barker - NOAA Federal <chris.barker <at> noaa.gov> writes:
> 
> 
> I thought about that -- but if you have timedelta without datetime,
> you really just have an integer -- we haven't bought anything.
> 
> It seems we have a number of somewhat orthogonal issues with DateTime
> in front of us:
> 
> 1) How to handle (or not) time zones


IMHO doing any conversion of the input data unless explicitly requested
is wrong. That means the current behaviour of converting to the local 
timezone when no timezone is specified is bad. To prevent any conversion 
taking place I'm happy with the no timezone implies UTC fix.


> 2) How (whether) to handle leap-seconds, etc.


I don't care about leap-seconds - I want the difference between any two days 
to be 86400s, always. I don't mind if the leap-second functionality is 
provided so long as it doesn't incur a large performance penalty in the case 
that you don't care.


> 3) Whether to support TAI time (or is that the same as the above?)


I now know about TAI time...


> 4) Should we add a flexible epoch?


No strong opinion though it does sound sensible.


> I suggest we create separate threads for these, discuss a bit more,
> then have at the NEP.
> 
> I'll start one for (1).
> 
> I don't have the expertise nor use-case for (2) and (3), so I'll punt,
> but someone can pick it up.
> 
> I'll start one for (4) also, though I'm not sure I have much to say,
> other than that I think it's good idea. My naive view is that it would
> be pretty easy, actually, but I could be very wrong there.
> 
> -Chris
> 


-Dave