Re: Few preliminary comments
Peter McGoron 21 Sep 2026 17:27 UTC
> Should probably say `a timestamp object'.
Thanks, will be fixed in the next draft.
> Why TZPATH and not TZDIR? There might be a good reason for that, but
it is a shame the library will not work out of the box on GNU Guix
(and other non-FHS systems), so it would be nice to document the rationale.
I was not aware of TZDIR, I will document it. TZPATH is used because it
is was Python uses, there is no strong reason for it. I will note TZDIR
also.
> I suspect there is a typo in the `is has'.
You are correct, I will fix it.
> Equivalents of these C functions are not present, but they are useful.
Is this omission intentional?
The reason they are not supplied is:
1. Scheme doesn't have a well supported standard for querying locale
information. So likely the date and time information will be in English.
2. There isn't a standard formatting system. There are systems that use
Common Lisp-style formats, C-style formats, string interpolation style,
and more out-there stuff like monadic formatting [1].
3. The SRFI allows for non-Gregorian calendars, and the strftime system
really only works for Gregorian-style calendars.
All of the primitives are here to write a strftime function, though
(except for locales).
> I find it bit unfortunate to reference non-free documents. It makes
it impossible to implement the SRFI without buying the ISO document.
Maybe it would be better to describe the rules directly in the SRFI?
Yes I will definitely do this. I have not written the rules directly yet
because the draft was entirely done, and I wanted to get it out there
and not have it sit on my computer while I sorted out the drudgery of
acquiring said non-free standard. (That part of the specification and
the sample implementation was not written by me, and I am trusting that
they implemented it correctly.)
[1]: https://srfi.schemers.org/srfi-166/srfi-166.html
-- Peter McGoron