[UR-WG] Comment on duration format for WallDuration andCpuDuration

[Rosario Michael Piro]

Donal K. Fellows wrote:
> Bart Heupers wrote:
>> Of course I am in control over what I produce, but I have to interpret
>> and use what others produce, and I don't want other systems to give the
>> possibility to add uncertainty where it is not needed. 
> 
> But you're the one adding uncertainty by trying to convert everything
> into seconds. If you stop doing that, the uncertainty goes away. If
> people are accounting for stuff in months (I've no idea why they would)
> then it is false accuracy to pretend that it anything else.

Then what about aggregation? How would you compute the total CPU time 
"consumed" by a user within the last year if some of the records contain 
only seconds while others use also days and months. In this use case you 
have to convert somehow. Of course, you might have something like 
P123DT1686255S ... but give that value to the management board of the 
LCG and let's see what they'll tell you ... :o)

Let's face it, we can't get easily around ambiguity with ISO8601 
periods. Again, I don't say we shouldn't use them, but we need to be 
aware that there will always be use cases where they will be ambiguous.

Cheers,

Rosario.