Timezone needed?

Joon Radley joon at radleys.co.za
Thu Jul 1 06:51:56 CEST 2004


Hi Martin,

> > > We only require the UTC timezone no other timezone. If 
> the timezone 
> > > is missing it is a "local time".
> 
> I try to rephrase: The normal case is using UTC. The 
> exception is to not specify any timezone which shall be 
> interpreted as local time.
> 
> > "local time" where? 
> 
> wherever the client currently is.
> 
> > How do I translate it to UTC so that I can translated it to 
> my local 
> > time?
> 
> Local time by definition is not translated but used literally.

So you are traveling to South America again and while there you make
appointments for you return to Germany. When you return to Germany how do
you interpret the "local time" or do you need to change all the
appointments?

> > Or are we abandoning the idea that the date time format can work 
> > across time zones?
> 
> No, we normally use UTC only. Local time as an exception is 
> reserved for some very special use cases which cannot be 
> modeled with a fixed UTC notation.

Could you please provide the use case, with detailed information on how you
want to store the date/time and how the translation from UTC to local time
cannot solve the problem.

Best Regards

Joon Radley
Radley Network Technologies CC
Cell: +27 (0)83 368 8557
Fax: +27 (0)12 998 4346
E-mail: joon at radleys.co.za




More information about the format mailing list