point = startDate;
stepTimeSpan = (endDate - startDate) / (maxSteps - 1); //will fail if maxSteps = 1
for (i = 0; i < maxSteps; i++)
{
    records.Add(getClosestTo(point));
    point = point + stepTimeSpan;
}
return records;

bucketStart = startDate;
bucketTimeSpan = (endDate - startDate) / maxSteps;
for (i = 0; i < maxSteps; i++)
{
   bucket = getRecordsBetween(bucketStart, bucketStart + bucketTimeSpan);
   records.Add( new Record( AvgDate(bucket), AvgValue(bucket) ) );
   bucketStart = bucketStart + bucketTimeSpan;
}
return records;