Extend support for time.Instant

[jlaur]

I would like to propose some enhancements for working with time.Instant similar to the functionality provided by time.toZDT.

As an example, I have this rule code:

    var startTime = time.toZDT(lastUpdateItem.state).toInstant();
    var endTime = time.Instant.now();

which I would like to rewrite to something like:

    var startTime = time.toInstant(lastUpdateItem.state);
    var endTime = time.toInstant();

following the conventions of toZDT.

I'm also wondering if it would make sense to even be able to do this to skip parsing strings:

    var startTimeZoned = lastUpdateItem.zonedDateTimeState;
    var startTimeInstant = lastUpdateItem.instantState;

i.e. more "native" support similar to <item>.quantityState and <item>.numericState.

I can volunteer providing the code, but wanted to first discuss the approach and direction.

[jlaur]

Cc @florian-h05

[florian-h05]

I like the idea of having a time.toInstant function - probably it can share some code with time.toZDT.

I'm also wondering if it would make sense to even be able to do this to skip parsing strings:

You can also do time.toZDT(DateTimeItem) and it will retrieve the ZDT from the Item without parsing strings.