Does anyone know why klock backs its datetimes with double i

Question

Does anyone know why klock backs its datetimes with double instead of integer This is Very odd Is klock the standard for datetime stuff in kotlin

diesieben07 · Answer

Most likely for JS compatibilty because JS has no native 64 bit int

pardom · Answer

gt Is klock the standard for datetime stuff in kotlin I don t think there is a standard at this point It would be nice if mpp dates were in the stdlib

Nir · Answer

I didn t mean standard like in the standard library more like de facto standard slightly smiling face

Nir · Answer

< diesieben07> That s a very logical reason but yikes

pardom · Answer

Yeah I don t think it s de facto either

Nir · Answer

IMHO if you really need to deal with that I would back it generically

pardom · Answer

I think it s just the only option for MPP other than rolling your own dates

Nir · Answer

MPP means kotlin native

diesieben07 · Answer

And JS

Nicholas Bilyk · Answer

multi platform not necessarily native

pardom · Answer

There s a lot in klock that I don t necessarily want to import

pardom · Answer

I think there ought to be a project solely focused on the date implementation Similar to this project solely focused on UUID <https github com benasher44 uuid>

Nicholas Bilyk · Answer

I rolled my own but I wouldn t recommend it

Nicholas Bilyk · Answer

It gets hairy when you get to parsing and formatting

pardom · Answer

date time is not a fun problem in general grimacing

diesieben07 · Answer

If you only need the JVM I can recommend just sticking with java time it works great

Nicholas Bilyk · Answer

you can create expect actual methods for things like parsing and then defer to the platform s defacto implementation like js Intl package and jvm calendar stuff It works well but you get implementation differences

Nir · Answer

Rolling your own just isn t realistic tbh

Nir · Answer

unless you only need very basic stuff

Nir · Answer

if you need to actually do timezone stuff for example it s a non starter

Nir · Answer

writing a parser for the IANA database etc

pardom · Answer

I looked for the IANA DB in Klock but didn t see it Did I miss it

Nir · Answer

< pardom> what do you mean solely the date implementation what is klock if not that

Nicholas Bilyk · Answer

by rolling my own I meant just writing apis that give you a common way to access the different backends

Nicholas Bilyk · Answer

and then the backends have the normal way they do time

pardom · Answer

< Nir> what I meant by that was a way to retrieve time

pardom · Answer

I was unclear about that

Nicholas Bilyk · Answer

just a timestamp or do you need to format it

Nir · Answer

What is the de facto implementation on native

Nir · Answer

The C stuff is not good to say the least

Nir · Answer

< pardom> Having seen multiple implementations that went badly wrong I d have to say I disagree time dates timezones all needs to be planned as one library

Nir · Answer

It s very hard to retrofit things later design wise

Nir · Answer

These things are intimately connected so logically you are going to arrive at a better overall design if you take it all into consideration at once

Nir · Answer

I think you are right I don t think klock actually has TZ support disappointed

Nir · Answer

gt As for 1 0 Klock doesn t have direct TimeZone support But support offseted DateTime using DateTimeTz

Nir · Answer

So both python datetime and C++ boost datetime started with approaches like this and both are a total mess to use once you need real timezone support

gildor · Answer

klock is not a standard and not even de facto standard is just a community library there are plans for full blown date time library for MPP but it doesn t exist yet for now just better to use platform specific API with own MPP wrapper

Nir · Answer

< gildor> this is fine on the JVM but e g for native using the C stuff is a disaster

gildor · Answer

yes there is no perfect solution indeed

Nicholas Bilyk · Answer

couldn t you use any C library you wanted on the C backend

Nir · Answer

I m just not aware of any really good C library solution for this

Nir · Answer

You could probably find something that would be correct but the API type correctness etc of the library would be very poor because it s C

Nir · Answer

It would be a massive step down from e g C++ date or the java libraries

karelpeeters · Answer

I think one of the JB guys posted a preliminary date time API design to ask feedback on about a month ago but I can t seem to find it Does anyone have the link

karelpeeters · Answer

So what I wanted to say look like the plan for the Kotlin stdlib is to store it as a double as well <https github com Kotlin KEEP blob durations proposals stdlib durations and clocks md duration>

Nir · Answer

< karelpeeters> thanks for linking I wrote a pretty long reply on the thread

karelpeeters · Answer

You should write that reply on the issue stuck out tongue

Nir · Answer

Yeah definitely not a fan of the double thing

Nir · Answer

I did

Nir · Answer

Check it out slightly smiling face

Nir · Answer