Comment by Terr_

3 days ago

It's a similar painful insanity as: "Other currencies? Just convert them to US dollars on save, and store that number in the database, nice and easy, no problems."

4 comments

Terr_

Reply
s20n  2 days ago

This is a false analogy. Currencies are volatile whereas timezones are static and rule based.

Converting timestamps between time zones is perfectly reversible while there is a loss of information when you convert a value to a new currency.

  • WillDaSilva  2 days ago

    Timezones are not static, and actually change somewhat frequently. A program that converts any given future time to UTC risks becoming incorrect about when that time is due to political changes that affect the timezone the given future time was in.

  • dqv  2 days ago

    > Converting timestamps between time zones is perfectly reversible while there is a loss of information when you convert a value to a new currency.

    False. This scenario absolutely does happen:

        2027-03-08 11:00AM (Local) -> 2027-03-08 2:00PM (UTC)

    (tzdata version changes)

    2027-03-08 10:00AM (Local) <- 2027-03-08 2:00PM (UTC)