Re:Samoa to jump forward in time by one day
by beagle3 on Monday May 09, 2011 @02:05PM
(#2529583)
> Luckily for most people the ZoneInfo DB is part of the OS and gets updated with your system updates
Actually, that's NOT true, because most people use Windows, whose TimeZoneDB is horribly implemented, and only cares about the present (and only if you updated recently). If you ask it about 2003, it will answer with today's rules, not with the rules that were in effect in 2003.
While this is just a little bad for the US (rules changed only twice in the last 50 years), in some countries they have changed every other year, or they cannot be expressed with the rules that Windows has.
Actually, that's NOT true, because most people use Windows, whose TimeZoneDB is horribly implemented, and only cares about the present (and only if you updated recently). If you ask it about 2003, it will answer with today's rules, not with the rules that were in effect in 2003.
While this is just a little bad for the US (rules changed only twice in the last 50 years), in some countries they have changed every other year, or they cannot be expressed with the rules that Windows has.
Windows date and time handling is a joke.