3 ms·

I think you're missing the point of the example. When I make plans to meet someone "at 10AM Central time on Friday", I don't mean "let's meet at UTC epoch 14897

I think you're missing the point of the example. When I make plans to meet someone "at 10AM Central time on Friday", I don't mean "let's meet at UTC epoch 1489762800". I mean "let's meet when the clock says 10:00". If the government suddenly decided to cancel daylight saving time on Thursday, then our meeting would still happen at 10:00 on Friday, even though in absolute (UTC) terms it would be an hour earlier. A calendar appointment isn't identified by a UTC instant; it's identified by a predicate.

fenwick67 10y ago
Another example is recurring events. Let's say I have a meeting every Friday at 4PM Central in Chicago. That's UTC 11:00 now, but it was UTC 10:00 last week.
- crazygringo 10y ago
  Which also makes it really interesting for people in other time zones. E.g. my recurring meetings, defined in eastern time zone, are the same for me this week as last week (thank goodness) -- but they've moved by an hour for people in other countries who are also in the meetings.
dragonwriter 10y ago
Yes, all of the following are possible needs: (1) event scheduled for 7:00pm local time in a certain place on a certain date, that needs to be at that local time regardless of whether the government changes to time zone of that locality, or changes DST rules. (2) event at 7:00pm Central Time ona certain date, that needs to occur at that time in the regardless of DST date changes. (3) event at 7:00pm CST, which has a fixed offset from UTC.
dllthomas 10y ago
Unless you are meeting up to watch the eclipse...
- teraflop 10y ago
  Ha, fair point! But it's only a small step farther to allow scheduling an appointment relative to an arbitrary time zone, instead of the one you happen to currently be in. Which naturally includes UTC, for situations where astronomical time is what you really care about.

3 ms·

I think you're missing the point of the example. When I make plans to meet someone "at 10AM Central time on Friday", I don't mean "let's meet at UTC epoch 14897

by teraflop 10y ago

fenwick67 10y ago
Another example is recurring events. Let's say I have a meeting every Friday at 4PM Central in Chicago. That's UTC 11:00 now, but it was UTC 10:00 last week.
- crazygringo 10y ago
  Which also makes it really interesting for people in other time zones. E.g. my recurring meetings, defined in eastern time zone, are the same for me this week as last week (thank goodness) -- but they've moved by an hour for people in other countries who are also in the meetings.
dragonwriter 10y ago
Yes, all of the following are possible needs: (1) event scheduled for 7:00pm local time in a certain place on a certain date, that needs to be at that local time regardless of whether the government changes to time zone of that locality, or changes DST rules. (2) event at 7:00pm Central Time ona certain date, that needs to occur at that time in the regardless of DST date changes. (3) event at 7:00pm CST, which has a fixed offset from UTC.
dllthomas 10y ago
Unless you are meeting up to watch the eclipse...
- teraflop 10y ago
  Ha, fair point! But it's only a small step farther to allow scheduling an appointment relative to an arbitrary time zone, instead of the one you happen to currently be in. Which naturally includes UTC, for situations where astronomical time is what you really care about.