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List:       perl-datetime
Subject:    Re: Olson <-> Microsoft mappings
From:       "Michael Fair" <michael () daclubhouse ! net>
Date:       2003-09-24 7:55:00
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> On Tue, Sep 23, 2003 at 04:55:02PM -1000, Joshua Hoblitt
<jhoblitt@ifa.hawaii.edu> wrote:
> > > I gaurantee you there are not 364 timezone/DST rules in use in the
> > > world today.  The 364 zones are only needed if you are using dates
> > > in the past, which I'm not.  Future timezone changes are a different
> > > story altogether.
>
> I could be mistaken, but I thought that the Olson DB tries to have a
> separate timezone name for each country even if it is the same as some
> other country.  This is to make it easier to select the correct
> timezone, which I thought was one of your goals.

This comment was mine.

Even accounting for duplication across country borders the list is
still no where near 364.  Also, unless there is some programmatic
method of grouping the names into their respective countries, then
a better method would be to use something more along the lines of
what the MS list presented (Offsets from UTC with distinctions
following the variation of DST rules).

I'm not trying to remove the useful parts of the Olson DB at all.
I'm just trying to create a more intuitive way for users to select names.
A straight alphabetical list of Olson names will not do this even
if split up into 9 broad catagories.

-- Michael --

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