dateTime etc accessors now UTC-based, were local

I noticed that the Last Call (02 May 2003) Functions and Operators working
draft has changed from the 15 November 2002 draft in regards to the basis
for component accessors functions for dateTime and friends.

For example, where previously (Section 8.4.10.1, 15 November 2002)

fn:get-hours-from-dateTime(xs:dateTime("1999-05-31T13:20:00-05:00")) returns
13,

now (Section 9.4.10.1, 02 May 2003)

fn:get-hours-from-dateTime(xs:dateTime("1999-12-31T21:20:00-05:00")) returns
2.

It would appear that the basis for component accessors has gone from local
(same as lexical) to UTC.  I can understand that the distinction is
necessary to get everything to work out right, but the user is now left with
the onerous task of calculating local components and surprising results
unless this behavior is made very explicit in the specs.

Would you be able to point me to some threads on the subject? Did the
committee consider some parallel functions e.g. get-local-hours-from- and
get-utc-hours-from-?

Thanks,

David Holmes

Received on Wednesday, 7 May 2003 16:52:08 UTC