[Opensim-users] thoughts on timezones

[Dirk Krause]

Hi,

I resisted to bring this into the discussion, but now I can't help it :-).

+1 on having UTC on the server and only that.

With that out of the way, I think the 'local' time should be set by the Sim/Region owner, so that you for example can use a Sim for games where you might want different time tables, maybe even different time paces.

A use for this could be in a Serious Game; let's think of a Mars simulation where you want to have Mars Time and years and so on.  But all this could be done on the client, so this is basically a viewer not a server issue.

So if it turns out, that the time is hard-coded in the viewer ... whoever takes up work on a new viewer could provide some time table functionality (perhaps set by script from the server which could be from the .ini file) to have some 'local' time display.

Best,
  Dirk/Barth



-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: opensim-users-bounces at lists.berlios.de [mailto:opensim-users-bounces at lists.berlios.de] Im Auftrag von Justin Clark-Casey
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 21. Januar 2009 18:05
An: opensim-users at lists.berlios.de
Betreff: Re: [Opensim-users] thoughts on timezones

William George wrote:
> Don't overthink this time thing, its all a convention. Local code shows 
> local time; server code and databases should be in UTC
> 
> however this is probably wrong:
> 
> "You can see this by picking up an object in OpenSim.  Though the Linden 
> Labs
> viewer may say 10:00AM PST when you pick it up, and your server may be 
> set to Central European Time 19:00, the item
> properties acquired date will show 18:00 (which is the UTC time)."
> 
> The aquired time should in local time.....

Yes, this should be adjusted, and I would argue that the adjustment should be done by the client before display.

However, this does actually bring up an interesting philosophical question as to what local time is.  Is local time your 
own machine's timezone, or is it the region's timezone?