timestamp as ABI type

[chriseth]

Timestamps are quite common in smart contracts, Solidity even has special keywords for handling time. It would improve user interfaces (especially the auto-generated like the "smart wallet") if web3.js would know that a specific variable is a timestamp, so values could be rendered differently and special inputs could be provided.

[alexvandesande]

I support this immensely. I just added this week a hack attempt of differentiation on the wallet. Now overtime it finds a uint that is between 1400000000 and 1800000000 and that doesn't end in 000 it will add the equivalent conversion to timestamp besides it.

(edit)

Also, I'd like to point out that the input type date is a supported html5 spec and that many browsers, specially mobile ones, already have a custom interface for picking date and time.

[chriseth]

Do we want to differentiate between timestamp (seconds since the unix epoch) and timespan (seconds)?

[frozeman]

no, i would only add timestamp as its a "data type" for most interfaces, but for time span i don't see a reason, why we want to standardise that. Any comments?

[chriseth]

For an automatic UI, it makes a tremendous difference whether you have a timestamp or a time span.

[alexvandesande]

I think timestamp is much more common. Whenever I use a time span variable
it's usually a uint for some sort of measure (number of minutes, amount of
days, etc) and don't really need seconds standardisation..

On Fri, Jan 8, 2016 at 8:09 AM, chriseth notifications@github.com wrote:

For an automatic UI, it makes a tremendous difference whether you have a
timestamp or a time span.

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Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#46 (comment).

Alex Van de Sande
UX Designer

[axic]

Whenever I use a time span variable it's usually a uint for some sort of measure (number of minutes, amount of days, etc) and don't really need seconds standardisation..

One could say that timespan is standardised as seconds and that allows the UI to show it in units it likes, i.e. minutes, days, etc.

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