The discussion in [1] led to the following question. Before we proceed on a vote it was decided we should do a straw poll to settle on an approach (which can then be voted on in a +1/-1 fashion).
--- Some date & time libraries have three temporal concepts. For the sake of this document we will call them LocalDateTime, ZonedDateTime, and Instant. An Instant is a timestamp that has no meaningful reference time zone (e.g. events that did not occur on Earth or columns of timestamps spanning more than one time zone). For more extensive definitions and a discussion of their semantics and uses see [1]. Currently Arrow describes how to define two of these three concepts and there is no guideline on how to store an Instant (assuming the proposal in [2] passes). This proposal states that Arrow should define how to encode an Instant into Arrow data. There are several ways this could happen, some which change schema.fbs and some which do not. --- For sample arguments (currently grouped as "for changing schema.fbs" and "against changing schema.fbs") see [2]. For a detailed definition of the terms LocalDateTime, ZonedDateTime, and Instant and a discussion of their semantics see [3]. Options: A) Do nothing, don’t introduce the nuance of “instants” into Arrow B) Do nothing, but update the comments in schema.fbs to acknowledge the existence of the concept and explain that implementations are free to decide if/how to support the type. C) Define timestamp with timezone “UTC” as “instant”. D) Add a first class instant type to schema.fbs E) Add instant as a canonical extension type Note: This is just a straw poll and the results will not be binding in any way but will help craft a future vote. For example, if the plurality of votes goes to C but a majority of votes is spread across A & B then some flavor of A/B would likely be pursued. Vote for as many options as you would like. I will summarize and send out the results in 72 hours.
