[Python-Dev] time functions

[Guido van Rossum]

Let's not redesign the time module API too much.  I'm all for adding
the default argument values that Thomas proposes.  Then, instead of
changing the API, we should look into a higher-level Python module.
That's how those things typically go.

Digital Creations has its own time extension type somewhere in Zope, a
bit similar to mxDateTime.  I looked into making this a standard
Python extension but quickly gave up.  The problems with these things
seems to be that it's hard to come up with a design that makes
everyone happy: some people want small objects (because they have a
lot of them around, e.g. a timestamp on almost every other object);
others want timezone support; yet others want microsecond resolution;
leap-second support; pre-Christian era support; support for
nonstandard calendars; interval arithmetic; support for dates without
times or times without dates...

Python could use a better time type, but we'll have to look into which
requirements make sense for a generalized type, and which don't.  I
fear that a committee could easily pee away years designing an
interface to satisfy absolutely every wish.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)