[Python-Dev] PEP 410 (Decimal timestamp): the implementation is ready for a review

[Gregory P. Smith]

On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 2:29 PM, Barry Warsaw <barry at python.org> wrote:
> I think I will just state my reasoning one last time and then leave it to the
> BDFL or BDFOP to make the final decision.
>
> Victor on IRC says that there is not much difference between Decimal and
> timedelta, and this may be true from an implementation point of view.  >From a
> cognitive point of view, I think they're miles apart.  Ultimately, I wish ints
> and floats weren't used for time-y things, and only datetimes (for values with
> well-defined starting points, including the epoch) and timedeltas (for values
> with no starting point) were used.
>
> We obviously can't eliminate the APIs that return and accept ints and floats,
> most of which we inherited from C, but we can avoid making it worse by
> extended them to also accept Decimals.  I think it would be valuable work to
> correct any deficiencies in datetimes and timedeltas so that they can be used
> in all time-y APIs, with whatever resolution is necessary.
>
> My primary concern with the PEP is adding to users confusion when they have to
> handle (at least) 5 different types[*] that represent time in Python.

+1