Re: [community-group] Add support for simple duration values (#342)

One of the things to keep in mind in spec creation is how this will be implemented.  A stricter, more verbose spec _may_ require more work for tooling creators to support all the different duration types correctly.  Inversely, a shorthand may allow them to cut corners leading to a less complete experience for users.

In this instance, imagine that developers want to save some time and _only_ implement the simple duration values (ms).  Users of their app can only define values in ms as a result and it is spec complaint so this is not expanded upon.  Meanwhile another application might support multiple duration units and will only receive ms from application 1.  Is this a serious issue?  Not really, time is easy to convert, but it does lead to a fragemented implementation and a less-predictable output format.  If everyone only chooses to implement the simple duration value, perhaps the organizational value of the others could be completely lost.

I think you've done a good job of outlining the pros and cons here, but for me the "less verbose syntax" isn't meaningfully relevant if we assume that _most_ people will be using tools like Pinwheel and won't be authoring tokens by hand.  I tend to be in favour of more rigid specs to keep developers accountable, and therefore would not be in favour of this change.

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Received on Tuesday, 28 October 2025 16:47:59 UTC