[Cbor] Encoding Arbitrary Time Ratios

[Emile Cormier <[e-mail]>]

I'd like to be able to encode any arbitrary C++ std::chrono::time_point (
https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/chrono/time_point) into CBOR in a
lossless manner. A C++ time_point basically contains three values: a
numerator and denominator to express a ratio in seconds, plus a multiplier
(aka "count"). For example, to store the number of weeks since the epoch,
one could use:

using weeks = std::period<uint64_t, std::ratio<604800, 1>>;
std::chrono::time_point<std::chrono::system_time, weeks> when(123);

In order words, 123 * (604800 / 1) seconds.

I could of course convert 123 weeks to seconds before encoding to CBOR, but
for large numbers of weeks, I would risk arithmetic overflow.

std::ratio<604800, 1> in my example is a compile-time constant, but it
would have to be encoded as a run-time pair of integers over CBOR. Note
that the ratio is arbitrary in C++. Nothing prevents a C++ programmer from
storing a "micro-fortnite" as a std::ratio<14*86400, 1000000>.

To allow the encoding any arbitrary time ratios, I propose a new CBOR tag
wrapping an array of 1 to 3 values:

[Count, Numerator, Denominator]

where Count is an integral or floating point number, and Numerator and
Denominator are integers representing the ratio in seconds.The Numerator
and Denominator would default to 1 if absent.

CBOR tags 1001-1003 would be extended to allow this new CBOR tag as the
value key. This would allow me to encode additional metadata on the
std::chrono::time_point clock type (POSIX, UTC, TAI, GPS).

I can write-up a draft proposal for this new tag on my Github, but I'd like
to hear your thoughts first.

Cheers,
Emile Cormier