Duration Datatype

[theduke]

Define a datatype for specifying a duration.

The main question is if millisecond precision is enough, or if sub-millisecond precision is required often enough.

I lean towards just specifying it as milliseconds.

[joepio]

Creating a new datatype or not is a tough decision. I tend to gravitate to keep the amount of datatypes to a minumum. If a datatype can actually be represented as a Property, things are often far easier.

Basically, as a rule of thumb, I currently always ask the question: does this new datatype require a new type of input for forms? And if it does, is the datatype reusable in multiple semantic relationships?

For Duration, I think there are definitely scenarios were I'd expect a new type of form. For example if I'm planning a holiday on AirBnB I want a date-range select. And in a calendar appointment, too. But these make more sense to represent as two seperate fields: start-date and end-date.

Which usecases did you have in mind? Can you come up with multiple Properties that would use this datatype?

[theduke]

I tend to gravitate to keep the amount of datatypes to a minumum

I concur, but duration is a common type which has a distinct semantic meaning not subsumed by a timestamp or a plain integer.

Example use cases:

• duration of a video or audio file
• duration worked on a task in a time tracking app
• duration of a page visit in an analytics tracker
• ...

I think it's common enough and distinct enough to have a dedicated core datatype.