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Date: Mon, 27 May 2013 01:10:24 -0400
Reply-To: Sanford Whiteman <swhitemanlistens-software@cypressintegrated.com>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] date.timezone E_WARNING -- Really necessary? What's the rationale?
From: swhitemanlistens-software@cypressintegrated.com (Sanford Whiteman)

> TZ setting is meant to be the timezone that your site is serving. Of
> course, if the site is meant to serve multiple zones, then UTC may be
> appropriate. But if your site is a local shop in Elbonia, then all your
> times would be appropriate to Elbonian timezone, because all activities
> are done with regard to this timezone.

That's my view to a T... UTC is not the universal best-fit default,
nor is "end user-defined" the only other fit. Depends. Plenty of sites
are best seen as geographically fixed even if they have contributing
clients who travel outside the local timezone.

In general, I use the principle of "domain time." If a site serves a
(stock) exchange that closes at 4:00pm Eastern time, people hitting
that site from all over the world are not going to necessarily
remember that close-of-business is such-and-such UTC or such-and-such
Tokyo. At best they will need to see the times side-by-side (like the
example of world clocks on the wall). And the fact that our clients'
end users see the time at corporate HQ by default is just another
manifestation of the domain time principle. Some domains don't pretend
to be timeless and spaceless. Note this doesn't mean all client
software is ignoring "roaming time" -- we send iCal invites in UTC of
course -- nor that, in our case, users they can't change what the site
displays if they insist (though they rarely do). It's a question of
the best-fit default.

Of course, there are many sites for which the best default *is*
user-defined or UTC, whichever is found first. It's just not a
universal assumption.

-- S.