Re:It's Time for a Change: Datetime.utcnow() Is Now Deprecated
by samus on Sunday November 19, 2023 @11:46AM
(#38334437)
No need for something as brittle as geographic coordinates or addresses. Time Zone names are the right abstraction. A given location very rarely time zone (unless in case of annexations, handovers of territory, etc.), but time zone rules (zone offset from UTC, DST, etc.) change all the time. A consequence of this is that the time zone database of applications should be updated every few months!
Re:It's Time for a Change: Datetime.utcnow() Is Now Deprecated
by d0mine on Sunday November 19, 2023 @03:36PM
(#38337584)
"brittle" ?
Your suggestion to define places by their timezone name is ok (it may work in many cases).
Re:It's Time for a Change: Datetime.utcnow() Is Now Deprecated
by samus on Monday November 20, 2023 @05:44PM
(#38355988)
"Complicated" then. One would have to consult a map to find out the time zone from geographical coordinates. The time zone is really everything needed to properly perform timezone-aware arithmetic.
"9:30am local time" may be ambiguous/unknown (the rules may not exist yet)
Using the same programming type for both may cause confusion.
How do you express geographic coordinates? Noon in London and in NY are different moments in time (it may be important if you want to have a remote meeting).