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

[Gregory P. Smith]

On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 4:23 PM, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 8:29 AM, Barry Warsaw <barry at python.org> wrote:
>> 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.
>
> My key question to those advocating the use of timedelta instead of Decimal:
>
> What should timedelta.total_seconds() return to avoid losing
> nanosecond precision?
> How should this be requested when calling the API?

It should return a float as it does today.  Add a
timedelta.total_nanoseconds() call for people wanting high precision
as a raw number and remind people of the precision limits of
total_seconds() in the docs.

-gps