Re: [office-comment] Re: [office] Date and Timezone: draft text

["Dave Pawson" <dave.pawson@gmail.com>]

2008/7/6 Leonard Mada <discoleo@gmx.net>:
> Hello everyone,
>
> Please see my comments below.
>
> David A. Wheeler wrote:
>>
>> Dave Pawson:
>> > Outsider view.
>> > Not a solution. Just more of an interop problem.
>> > Use iso8601 inclusive of TZ.
>>
>> We already use ISO 8601, which supports indicating timezones.
>> Timezone information is _optional_ in ISO 8601, though,
>> so _not_ indicating the timezone is _still_ compatible with ISO 8601.

Agreed.
21st Century and I18N might suggest TZ needs to be included.


>>
>> There is no timezone data in the built-in "Date" type of spreadsheets.
>> Writing out a timezone marker (such as "Z" for UTC) would be WRONG,
>> because there is NO such information in a spreadsheet.
>>
>> I think it'd be great to extend spreadsheets to provide proper
>> support for timezones, but that turns out to be:
>> 1. Nontrivial.
>> 2. Implemented by NO spreadsheets

But required for common business purposes IMHO.
The argument would be reasonable for a toy application.
Not for the target audience of ODF.

>>
>> I think it'd be inappropriate to do major surgery on a basic
>> type when there's no experience with such changes.  Let's standardize
>> on where there _IS_ agreement first.
>
> Having NO support for time-zones is a little bit shortsighted in the age of
> globalisation.

+1


Perhaps it's not easy. If we wish to provide a date facility to users
perhaps the effort is worthwhile.


regards

-- 
Dave Pawson
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http://www.dpawson.co.uk