[Tutor] is mxDateTime recommended?

[Lance E Sloan]

--On Thursday, October 20, 2005 4:44 PM -0400 Kent Johnson <kent37 at tds.net> 
wrote:
> Since 2.3 Python includes a datetime module which has some facility for
> date calculations. I think mxDateTime is more sophisticated but if your
> needs are simple take a look at datetime.

I think I would like to use the "datetime" module included with Python, 
just so I don't need to worry about an additional piece of code, the 
"mxDateTime" module.

In my code, I set up some mxDateTime RelativeDateTime objects that will be 
used later:

  secondLockBeginsDelta = DateTime.RelativeDateTime( day = 14, hour = 23,
  minute = 59, months = -4 )

When I add that to another mxDateTime object, the month, hour, and minute 
get set to those absolute values, but the month is reduced by four.  I know 
I won't be able to exactly the same thing with datetime.  I think I could 
do something like this (semi-pseudocode):

  firstTime = datetime.now()
  secondTime = firstTime - timedeltaFourMonthsObject
  secondTime.replace( day = 14, hour = 23, minute = 59 )

The problem is that I can't figure out how to create that 
timedeltaFourMonthsObject.  The datetime timedelta class constructor 
doesn't allow creating a delta with a month.  Any suggestions?

(I think it's a little too bad that the timedelta class represents all 
deltas as days and seconds.  That must be why they don't support months, 
since months have different lengths.  IMHO...)

Also, how can I make a copy of a datetime object?

  timeA = datetime.now()
  timeB = timeA # copy or reference to same object?

--
Lance E Sloan, Systems Research Programmer III
U-M WATS: Web Applications, Technologies, and Solutions
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