Re: Odd timezone backend output

Andrew Sullivan wrote:
> On Thu, May 01, 2008 at 09:58:09PM -0400, Andrew Chernow wrote:
>
>> The more I think about it, I personally like the display behavior of NTFS
>> file times over something like EXT3. When I am in EDT, it is useful to
>> have all display times in that zone (regardless of whether that time falls
>> within winter or summer) ... just as they would if I switched to PST.
>
> There's a difference between the two cases you're thinking of, though.
>
> In the case of "you being in EDT", you didn't actually switch time
> zone. In Eastern time zones, the offset is -05 from UTC for part of
> the year, and -04 from UTC from part of the year. That's what it
> _means_ to be in Eastern time: you didn't really switch time zone at
> all. I'm in America/Toronto in January and in June. My display
> should show the time correct to my time zone, not according to the
> offset from UTC. If you really want that, change your time zone to be
> an offset from UTC rather than a particular zone. (We used to have to
> differentiate between EST and EDT during the summer months, because
> Indiana didn't switch. As far as I know, there is no longer a single
> jurisdiction where the summer time change doesn't happen in Eastern
> time. If not for historical reasons, I'd argue the name should be
> changed to Eastern time.)
>
> If you switch to Pacific time (and why is it that people say "EDT" but
> "PST"? I don't know of any Pacific time jurisdictions that don't
> switch, either. Arizona doesn't switch mostly, but they're in
> Mountain time), the same thing happens.
>
> A
>

I prefer offset from UTC, the timezone abbrevs are ambiguos and
confusing. If I am in a timezone that is currently 4 hours behind UTC,
I would prefer all times to display adjusted by that offset. I
understand that technically its eastern time and EDT makes no sense in
Jan (NOTE: linux 'date' command rejects this ... should the backend?),
but its friendlier to adjust by a single offset (at least me thinks).
The individual's perception of time is -0400, thus displaying all times
adjusted by that seems logical. My whole preference here is in regards
to display times. I always try to see things from a non-technical
end-user's perspective.

--
Andrew Chernow
eSilo, LLC
every bit counts
http://www.esilo.com/