Working with time is not a trivial challenge. Python includes a native modulein the standard library to work with it but datetime keeps being together withunicode a common source of errors. This often leads to the widespread of manyother libraries in the attempt of easing the work of working with datetime.Datetime is one of those API that looks easy to use but given the manyconcepts around time, is it easy to get backfired if the developer has notsolid knowledge about the them.
In this talk we will overview the main concepts about timestamps representedthrough datetime objects, the limitations on the standard library and somesimple steps to try to avoid the common mistakes that everyone can fall into.
Naive datetimes (which the datetime API works by default with) are a greattool to represent calendar times, but when talking about timestamps (focus ofthis talk) timezones is n essential part of it and the datetime module can betricky to use for that use cases.
We will also speak about different standards of time, time zones, DaylightSaving Times, leap seconds, serialization and datetime arithmetics.
The talk will be focused on giving the foundations that everyone knows to beable to understand and work efficiently and without making painful mistakeswhen dealing with time related algorithms.
# Audience
All developers face a time when they have to work with datetime. This isclearly not a simple domain to just jump in to. The talk will help beginnersand intermediate developers to understand and don’t subestimate the complexityof working with time. The most experiences developers will also have some takeaways and pointers to further their grasp of this tricky field and gainconfidence on their daily usage of time related libraries.
The talk will include explanations of what “time” actually means and how canwe represent it in python. You don't need to be an expert in datetime nor ISOstandards, the attendees will leave understanding the complexity of time, themain concepts behind datetime and a list of tips to represent timestamps withdatetime in a painless way. The talk will also include pointers to solutionsfor more complex problems like leap seconds, the [foldattribute], etc. |