Aloha Tim,
Tim Cross <theophil...@gmail.com> writes:
"Thomas S. Dye" <tsd@tsdye.online> writes:
Aloha Tim,
UTC is a time zone - just one where offset is +0000
UTC is absolute time. It lacks the spatial component that
defines a time zone.
Really? I would have thought the prime meridian was the spacial
component for UTC? I thought the full long time zone name was
Etc/UTC
and UTC as the abbreviation.
Regardless, in all the libraries I've used, you can use Etc/UTC
or UTC
in exactly the same way you would use something like
Australia/Sydney or
AEST. So perhaps, from a pedantic standpoint, it is not a time
zone, but
for all intent and purpose in this discussion, I feel that point
is
irrelevant.
Agreed. It does seem irrelevant for time zone libraries.
Nevertheless, from the Org perspective it might not be. An
occurrence, which marks changes in the nature or relations of
things at a time, requires absolute time. Meetings, which involve
a change in relation among participants, are occurrences. IMO,
this indicates Org should give occurrences a UTC timestamp, then
translate that for each of the participants using their local time
zone. The insane interval problems that Ihor brought up are moot
in absolute time. A single timestamp serves a meeting regardless
of whether the participants are all in one time zone or spread
around the globe.
An occurrence contrasts with an event, which is tied to the user's
space/time. Time here is relative to the user. IMO, this means
that Org should give events a timestamp without reference to
either absolute time or a particular time zone, like the one it
uses now.
hth,
Tom
--
Thomas S. Dye
https://tsdye.online/tsdye
