[Bug 18452] New: Canonical datetime representation with fixed timezone needed

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=18452

           Summary: Canonical datetime representation with fixed timezone
                    needed
           Product: XML Schema
           Version: Future
          Platform: All
        OS/Version: Linux
            Status: NEW
          Severity: enhancement
          Priority: P2
         Component: Datatypes: XSD Part 2
        AssignedTo: David_E3@VERIFONE.com
        ReportedBy: david@dbooth.org
         QAContact: www-xml-schema-comments@w3.org
                CC: cmsmcq@blackmesatech.com


The current (1.1) canonical forms for datetime and datetimeStamp meet
requirements for one kind of use case, in which timezone distinctions are
semantically significant.  (In essence, with datetimeStamp, provenance
information is being encoded into the literal form of the datetime
representation in the timezoneFrag.)

However, there are many use cases in which the timezone provenance is not
needed.  And in these use cases, variability in the timezoneFrag makes it
unnecessarily difficult to compare datetimes for equality (or greater-than or
less-than), because it forces the comparison function to be datatype aware
instead of being able to perform a simple string comparison.  In particular, an
implementation is forced to parse apart the datetime components and perform
datetime arithmetic to add in the timezone offset.

These use cases could be addressed by defining an additional canonical form
consisting of the datetimeStamp type in which the timezoneFrag is required to
be "Z".

Please note that I am not asking for the existing canonical form to be
*changed* to meet this requirement.  Those forms are important for other use
cases.  I am asking for an *additional* canonical form to be defined.

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Received on Tuesday, 31 July 2012 18:24:36 UTC