> Is there any reason not to include the strftime formatting codes
> in the docstrings of time.strftime and time.strptime? 

I believe the reason is that time.strftime behavior is platform dependent, so "man strftime" is likely to produce more relevant documentation than "pydoc time.strftime".  Python manual <http://docs.python.org/library/time.html?#time.strftime> lists ANSI C codes, but warns that "Additional directives may be supported on certain platforms, but only the ones listed here have a meaning standardized by ANSI C."  It is likely that there are platforms where ANSI C subset does not behave in a fully compliant manner.