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What is your alternative? I suspect 99.999% of computer and phone users want the time of their local device. Do you want them all to have to explicitly set thei
by CJefferson 3y ago
What is your alternative? I suspect 99.999% of computer and phone users want the time of their local device. Do you want them all to have to explicitly set their time zone?
- adrian_b 3y agoSince the appearance of computer networks, all operating systems require during installation an explicit setting of the time zone. This includes Windows and any operating system that chooses to keep the time as local time, because even those need to be able to convert the local time to other time zones. The users who buy a computer with a preinstalled operating system may not see this, but someone has explicitly set their time zone. Because the time zone must be set anyway, it is always better to use inside programs a time that is either UTC or TAI and convert it only for presentation purpose. For purposes like storing the time at which future events are scheduled, if they are established in local time, so the future correct conversion is yet unknown, a distinct type must be used and that must be a structure with 3 members, date, time of the day and time zone. It must not be a time expressed in seconds or other time units, as it may be used for UTC or TAI.
- CJefferson 3y agoWindows 11 does not require setting timezone. I just did it in a VM to check I wasn't confused. Neither do android or iPhones.
- jraph 3y agoAny Android install I did myself in VMs or on a phone asked me for the timezone. (lineage and derivative). Maybe it could guess from the GSM network though. My dumb phone also does, though in terms of UTC offset + DST offset.