Thanks for your reply. As I am not the originator of this system that I now the principal developer of, I did not come up with the list of time zones. However, with 10,000+ users around the world, I am reasonably sure that there are a few users that are using them for whatever reason for their particular timezone. Also, the system was *not* implemented originally using DateTime (it is an old system that I am updating over time)... I implemented the use of DateTime as I feel it has a more full featured set of methods and options. (to your credit)
In any case, it looks like the approach to just show the current "Etc/GMT+#" style timezones while actually saving an offset in the form of "+##00: is working... It keeps what the user sees consistent, while storing something that is usable by DateTime. BTW, the list people have to choose from *does* include all the city based zones, also... it is just a case of some people not using them for whatever reason. BTW, thank you for setting up this email list. I am pleasantly surprised by the level of responses I got to my initial email. Nice! I will probably be back at some point with other questions... I need to build in some more localization options into the system... need to do the various date formats mostly. -Steve On Mon, Jun 27, 2016 at 9:49 AM, Dave Rolsky <auta...@urth.org> wrote: > On Sun, 26 Jun 2016, Steve James wrote: > > I am the principal developer for the FreeToastHost website system, a free >> website provider, content management system, and email list server used >> by over 10,000+ Toastmasters public speaking clubs worldwide. >> Toastmasters is a non-profit and much of the labor to support clubs is done >> on >> a volunteer basis. FreeToastHost is an independent effort created by >> Toastmasters club members from open source libraries and via >> volunteer labor. (myself included) FreeToastHost uses a number of your >> DateTime module functions. >> >> We have recently ran into an issue where it appears that DateTime does >> not support "Etc/" style names for timezones. (e.g. "Etc/GMT+6") >> >> For example, the following produces an exception for me when running in a >> plain vanilla test script: >> my $today = DateTime->today(time_zone => 'Etc/GMT+6'); >> >> >> Is there something I am missing or is this as intended? >> > > There is support in the code that parses the IANA db files to generate > these zones, but they're not included by default. > > Note that these zones are _very_ confusing, and I strongly recommend > against using them. The IANA definition of "Etc/GMT+6" is a zone 6 hours > _behind_ UTC. This is a historical POSIX thing. Only very very technical > (and probably old) users would ever expect this. > > As Rick pointed out, you should encourage people to use zones named for a > city anyway, since that way you get the appropriate DST transitions > included. > > > Cheers, > > -dave > > /*============================================================ > http://VegGuide.org http://blog.urth.org > Your guide to all that's veg House Absolute(ly Pointless) > ============================================================*/ -- *Steve James* PE, CPE, PMP, Six Sigma Blackbelt *Cell:* 818-570-1197 *Email:* 4steveja...@gmail.com *Linkedin: **http://www.linkedin.com/in/sejames* <http://www.linkedin.com/in/sejames>
