[Python-Dev] float atime/mtime/ctime - a bad idea?

[Guido van Rossum]

Barry:
> So then why not just make this an optional argument flag on the
> os.stat() call itself?  That way you could migrate some code at a
> different rate than other code (a global flag might be fine for your
> application, but break some 3rd party library you're using).

And Kevin:

> Please don't!  The global setting isn't sufficient since many of us
> access many 3rd party modules.

Most code doesn't care; most 3rd party code will work either way.
Martin proposed adding an option to the stat() call itself first, but
that seems a rather heavy-handed way to ensure backwards compatibility
for such a very rare situation.

If you are using a 3rd party library that breaks due to the floats,
you can disable the floats until you've got time to fix it.  You can
live with the ints a little longer.

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