The utter mess of current timezone definitions (was: Comparing offset-aware and offset-naive datetimes?)

[Ben Finney]

Roy Smith <roy at panix.com> writes:

> but I happen to know its offset is 0 (i.e. GMT).

As further fuel for your hatred: GMT is not the same thing as UTC+0, and
never has been. (See the definitions of those two separate timezones for
more; Wikipedia's articles are probably a good start.)

> May the flies of a thousand Norwegian Blue parrots infest the armpits of 
> whoever invented timezones.

Further support my position that the inventor of timezones is not to
blame for the utter mess in their current implementation, if you are
interested, can be found in the commentary within the Olson timezone
database itself.

Here is a fun article giving a “literary appreciation” of the database
<URL:http://blog.jonudell.net/2009/10/23/a-literary-appreciation-of-the-olsonzoneinfotz-database/>.

-- 
 \      “What we usually pray to God is not that His will be done, but |
  `\                       that He approve ours.” —Helga Bergold Gross |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney