[Python-Dev] Negative timedelta strings

[Alexander Belopolsky]

On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 7:03 AM, Steven D'Aprano <steve at pearwood.info>
wrote:

> py> str(timedelta(0, -1))
> '-1 day, 23:59:59'
> ..
> Does anyone remember the rationale for this behaviour?

I don't recall any better rationale than what I wrote in the docs: "String
representations of timedelta objects are normalized similarly to their
internal representation."

> Is it open to debate or is it now cast in stone?

I think the barrier for changing str() is lower than that for changing
repr(), but I would be against any changes in this area.  (I may have had a
different view if ISO 8601 syntax for timedeltas was not so ugly. :-)
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