"Permanent" DST

Wed Mar 16 16:54:23 UTC 2022

> On Mar 15, 2022, at 17:34 , Chris Adams <cma at cmadams.net> wrote:
> 
> Once upon a time, Dave <dedelman at iname.com> said:
>> Folks for most systems, this is a change to a single file. Not a really hard thing to accomplish
> 
> For lots of up-to-date servers running a current and well-maintained
> operating system, this will be mostly easy (except that if you maintain
> hundreds of servers, it's still non-trivial, because even with
> automation, there's testing involved to make sure all services are
> properly updated).  It's definitely more than "a change to a single
> file" though.
> 
> If that's all that existed, that'd be great.  However, there are tons of
> not up-to-date servers, running unmaintained operating systems.  There
> are tons of embedded systems that never get updates.  The last time
> Congress messed with the time zones and DST, it was a huge PITA, and I'd
> wager there are way more problem systems now than there were then.

True, but…

Last time Congress messed with this, they weren’t making it better (eliminating
the unnecessary and pointless timezone changes), they were arbitrarily changing
when those changes happened for no legitimate reason other than the desire to
appear to be doing something.

I know of many systems that do not cope well with the DST/noDST changes, though
as you said, mostly not modern ones running up to date software.

I do not know of a single system ever built which keeps time at all and could not handle
remaining in the same timezone year round without any modifications.

The last change required updating the rules for how the change worked and when to
trigger it for several timezones.

The proposed change (having a single timezone per location and not changing it twice
per year) would be much _MUCH_ simpler than the previous one and offers significant
advantages, especially to those older systems that don’t handle the change well.

> This is a huge waste of time to address, all because some businesses
> think their hours are nailed for all eternity, and the world must change
> instead.

This is a trivial change to eliminate an unnecessary complexity that no longer offers
any benefit to society and creates significant costs.

Owen