Hi Sheeri
On 27/08/2008, at 9:29 PM, Sheeri K. Cabral wrote:
The user does not have to convert times to UTC -- the *programmer*
does. The programmer is responsible for the interface between the
data and the end user; and time zones (in my opinion) are a display
feature. The programmer will likely want to store a "preferred
timezone" for a user within an application, in order to display a
default for the customer, but that's not a database issue.
Quite. Because different users can have different timezones.
A site *may* have a different timezone, but that may not cater for the
user's own timezone. Drupal for instance allows a user to select their
own timezone, so that any calendar information is displayed correctly.
That's exactly what we're talking about here.
If the db were to take care of the conversion, it would need to be fed
which timezone the inserted stamp is in, and what timezone the
selected stamp should be converted to. At that level, it might as well
just stay in the app layer and not bothering the db with it.
Let me also clarify that I'm not exactly sure what goes in the
database wrt timezones. Saying "just make the timezone UTC" is a
misnomer, because I'm proposing not having timezones in the database
at all. ie, "making the timezone irrelevant by assuming there's
only one, and assuming folks are going to put in UTC."
Concur.
That being said, it seems to me like timezone functionality is an
*excellent* opportunity for a plugin. The plugin would override the
data types and override the functions that deal with time.
Later - but preferably not.
I think this is an excellent place to make a stand - I do appreciate
it takes some explaining and sometimes convincing, since it's not what
people have been trying to wrangle for years.
But look... people used to make web pages' layout with tables, until
css came along. Then it still look some time. css works better though.
It was the right solution to the issue, not mixing content and
presentation (style).
Cheers,
Arjen.
--
Arjen Lentz, Founder @ Open Query
Training and Expertise for MySQL in Australia and New Zealand
http://openquery.com.au/training/ (ph. +61-7-3103 0809)
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