On Oct 8, 5:48 pm, "J. Cliff Dyer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 10/8/07, *J. Clifford Dyer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote: > > On Mon, Oct 08, 2007 at 01:13:24PM -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote regarding Re: pytz has so many > timezones!: > > > > On Oct 8, 1:03 pm, Carsten Haese < [EMAIL PROTECTED] > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote: > > > On Mon, 2007-10-08 at 10:41 -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > For example, Windows has seperate listings for > > > > > > > Central America > > > > Central Time (US & Canada) > > > > Guadalahara, Mexico City, Monterry - New > > > > Guadalahara, Mexico City, Monterry - Old > > > > Saskatchewan > > > > > > > but they are all GMT-6 > > > > > > But they could have different rules for Daylight Saving Time. > > > > Which only matters if you're setting your clock. > > > > Maybe this is where I'm not understanding you: Do you have another > use for setting a timezone? The only thing a time zone does, as far > as I can tell, is set clocks relative to a shared conception of time. > > -- > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list > > > > > > > How about a calendar entry: I've got six people in places all over the > > world to get on the phone together. If the app doesn't know their > > notion of a time zone, that will never happen. > > > How about financial transactions: time-stamping transactions that move > > around the world seems pretty useful to me. How do I know when said > > transaction started if I can't convert the user's time into the > > server's time? > > > Timezone is just another localization setting. It is no different > > than language or keyboard layout. It is a piece of data that > > describes the "world" the user lives in. Unfortunately, DST makes > > them very complex because DST is determined by the country and can > > change from year to year. I think the US' DST change this year had > > more of a real-world impact than Y2K (of course, people actually > > planned for Y2K, but that is a different story :). > > > tj > > OK. Those all make sense, but I think they contradict mensanator's > statement that DST and half-hour offsets "only matter[] if you're > setting your clock." None of those are meaningful with 25 generic time > zones, which was what I was trying to understand. Under what normal > circumstances (outside of the US military creating an approximation for > their own internal usage) could 25 tzs be a useful abstraction?
It's how the world goes around. Some people can't see the forest for the trees. Is it obvious from all this timezone crap that - a day lasts 48 hours? - it can never be the same day everywhere in the world simultaneously? Isn't that just as important for worldwide transactions as Daylight Savings Time (or lack thereof)? Perhaps, once the basics <http://members.aol.com/rotanasnem/truth/eykw_t40.htm> are understood, the details won't be so confusing. > > Cheers, > Cliff -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list