Python interface

[stchris]

I'm really excited about jiff and I was wondering if anyone had already thought about a PyO3 layer to enable its use from Python?

[BurntSushi]

I believe someone has already created bindings to Python for Jiff, but now I can't find them.

I'm not sure I personally want to wade into the Python datetime ecosystem. AIUI, the main path to victory there probably requires some deep thought of how to integrate with the standard library datetime types. I was more interested in starting from a blank canvas and having the freedom to follow in Temporal's footsteps. More practically speaking, I don't really have the bandwidth to do this. My focus is on marching toward Jiff 1.0 and improving Jiff's library ecosystem integration.

With that said, I would point you to whenever, which is a Python library loosely inspired by Temporal. If I needed a datetime library in Python, that's what I would use. I think it's connection to Temporal is perhaps a little more tenuous than Jiff, where Jiff follows Temporal's API design a bit more closely. (I'm thinking about whenever's OffsetDateTime and SystemDateTime, which neither Jiff nor Temporal have and instead fold both of those use cases into ZonedDateTime.) I don't know whether whenever's differences are a matter of taste, the result of integrating with the standard library datetime module or some other aspect of Python that demands it. However, it does appear to have a DateTimeDelta, which is Temporal's Duration or Jiff's Span. But I don't think it supports rounding yet.

Anyway, I'll cc @ariebovenberg here in case they want to add any more context. (I hang around on their issue tracker and chime in from time to time, so it's only fair if I invite them to do the same here haha.)

[ariebovenberg]

@BurntSushi thanks for tagging me in here! Perhaps the Python bindings you thought of was ry? It also wraps lots of other rust things.

@stchris thanks for the ⭐ , feedback is always welcome if you're missing any features or otherwise struggle with the API.

[BurntSushi]

Oh interesting. I don't think I knew about ry. I thought there was another wrapper targeted at Jiff. But I honestly don't remember haha.

[ariebovenberg]

Searching on PyPI I can also find this, but it appears abandoned

[BurntSushi]

Yup that was it! And indeed. Annoying when someone takes a good name for something like that. Oh well.

[ariebovenberg]

Also I just happened to read about PyO3 interop in #169, also related.