Millisecond timestamps

[silverwind]

In JS, one usually works with Unix timestamps in milliseconds format and I'm wondering if it would not be wiser for this module to expect them in this format too. I could see it being useful especially for scientific topics that require very high precision.

> (new Date()).getTime()
1575354886419

If I pass that to uPlot, it renders as year 51890 😉

[leeoniya]

i was on the fence about this for a while. on one hand milli is the native format, on the other hand most timescales that humans deal with are better represented by at least a second.

if i need millisecond precision in a plot, there's a 100% chance that i don't need the hour, day, date, month or year - i usually dont even need the minute. the values cease to be "time" in any meaningful sense and all the complexity that goes along with calendar-based time, like timezones and dst - i might as well just use a numeric time: false x axis from some declared initial offset.

storage of regular, non-milli timestamps is also higher density and doesnt require repetition of the 000 appendage.

if you need sub-second precision on a true timescale, you can always use floats:

1575354886.419

at least that's my thinking.

[silverwind]

It's not something I personally require (I only had a bug because of it as I was converting from ISO format which gives the native milliseconds). I guess seconds precision is enough for most people and if floats work, that is a valid alternative. Maybe just document it at https://github.com/leeoniya/uPlot#data-format that precision is expected in seconds and floats are accepted.

[leeoniya]

done.

[silverwind]

Thanks!