I don't *feel* anxious, but my doctor *has* been trying to persuade me to switch to decaf...
There's no real urgency. The reason this came up is because I just implemented zlib, which automatically enabled the gzip unit tests. The gzip tests are failing because the current timestamp can't be written as a 32-bit value. In order to checkin my changes, I can't have any failing tests -- so my choices are 1) change the IronPython epoch so that the timestamp works for gzip and tarlib 2) change gzip and tarlib to work with a "less standard" epoch, or 3) disable the failing test(s) ...and I'd rather not resort to #3, if possible. On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 10:03 AM, Guido van Rossum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Can you explain why you are so anxious to get this resolved (apart > from the beer :-) ? > > On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 9:26 AM, Curt Hagenlocher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> Any chance of an Official Pronouncement on this topic? It would help >> us greatly -- even if only to figure out who'll be paying for the next >> round of beer. >> >> On Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 4:38 PM, Guido van Rossum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>> ISTR that we force the epoch to be 1970 on all major platforms -- or >>> perhaps it happens to be 1970 even on Windows when using MS's C >>> runtime. >>> >>> On Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 4:08 PM, Curt Hagenlocher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>>> The documentation for the time module says that "the epoch is the point >>>> where the time starts. On January 1st of that year, at 0 hours, the ``time >>>> since the epoch'' is zero. For Unix, the epoch is 1970. To find out what >>>> the >>>> epoch is, look at gmtime(0)." This confirms that the epoch is >>>> platform-specific. As such, the only legal uses of the timestamp should be >>>> >>>> 1) comparing with another timestamp to determine elapsed time in seconds >>>> 2) passing to another standard Python library function which expects a >>>> timestamp >>>> 3) as a source of randomness. >>>> >>>> However, the following files in the standard library have hardcoded the >>>> assumption that the Python epoch will always be the same as the Unix epoch: >>>> In gzip.py, method GzipFile._write_gzip_header >>>> In tarfile.py, method _Stream._init_write_gz >>>> In uuid.py, function uuid1 >>>> >>>> Additionally, the following files in the standard library have hardcoded >>>> the >>>> assumption that the Python epoch will cause timestamps to fall within the >>>> range of a 32-bit unsigned integer value: >>>> In imputil.py, function _compile >>>> In py_compile.py, function compile >>>> >>>> So there's some kind of a potential discrepancy here, albeit a minor one. >>>> This discrepancy can be resolved in one of at least three ways: >>>> >>>> 1) The documentation for the time module is wrong, and the epoch for Python >>>> (at least versions 2.x) should be the Unix epoch. >>>> 2) These library functions are slightly wrong and should be modified by >>>> subtracing an "epoch offset" before doing other calculations. This offset >>>> can be calculated as "time.mktime((1970, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 3, 1, 0)) - >>>> time.timezone". >>>> 3) These library files should be considered part of the platform-specific >>>> implementation, and an alternate platform should provide its own version of >>>> these files if necessary. >>>> >>>> Any thoughts on this? >>>> >>>> From the perspective of implementing IronPython, I'd prefer that the answer >>>> is 1 or 2 -- but mainly I just want to be as compatible with "the spec" as >>>> possible, while respecting CLR-specific norms for functionality which is >>>> left up to individual implementations. >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Curt Hagenlocher >>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Python-Dev mailing list >>>> Python-Dev@python.org >>>> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev >>>> Unsubscribe: >>>> http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/guido%40python.org >>>> >>>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/) >>> >> > > > > -- > --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/) > _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com
