Here’s the HTML5 element, this would be within an iOS app or webpage

<input id="starttime" type="datetime" name="starttime" value="" />

Here’s the form to process the input and validate it

from django.utils import formats
 
class DateTimeForm(forms.Form):
    # append to input formats, don't replace
    my_formats = formats.get_format('DATETIME_INPUT_FORMATS') + ('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%fZ',)
 
    starttime = forms.DateTimeField(input_formats=my_formats)

That’s it! Process your ISO dates away!

The main issue is how long and wordy it’s pages are.  Instead of giving a brief overview and an example it goes on to explain concepts no one but a scholar would care about.  Developers usually want answers, fast.

Here’s an example, searching for “php timestamp” results in the following website showing first: http://php.net/manual/en/function.time.php

Without scrolling, one can see the function signature and an example!

With python, searching for “python timestamp” gives the following documentation hit:
http://docs.python.org/library/datetime.html

More of an explanation of higher overarching concepts then usage information.  It takes over 3 minutes to find any usable information.

This is a simple example, searching for exceptions is even more frustrating!  Bottom line is there needs to be alternative documentation that’s quick, concise and to the point for Python.  If they nail that they’ll covert many people over from older languages like PHP.

I was happy with my Ubuntufied HP.  I tinkered. I tweaked.  Everything worked in the end.  It was great fun and it taught me so much of the command line and of Unix which is so coveted in today web world.

Eventually it died.. and it was time to replace it.  At first, I never considered the MacBook.  There was no way Apple was going to have me buy one of it’s ridiculously locked down products at some outrageous price.

But all reviews I read kept pointing me to this notebook.  Its superior build quality, excellent keyboard, awesome trackpad.. To me, a developer this was all somewhat fluff.  I was after usability on the system itself!  I was after.. the terminal..  Now, this was one thing that REALLY sold me on a Mac.  The Unix environment is second to none.  As much fun as it is tweak the living hell out of Ubuntu, there are just some days when you install something you just want it to work out of the box.  Mac scores serious usability points for being a unix environment and just “working”.

So, add up the fact that it’s a great machine with a more and more supported OS every day that’s based on Unix.. and you might have a winner.  At least that’s what sold me in the end.

I still think that Apple as a company are a bunch of pricks.  The way they treat their customers is outrageously obscene.  But someone seems to have done their homework when it comes to usability which seems to be keeping people coming back.