Subj : JS Object save_msg()
To   : Digital Man
From : deon
Date : Sat Dec 21 2024 19:26:48

  Re: JS Object save_msg()
  By: Digital Man to deon on Fri Dec 20 2024 12:37 pm

Howdy,

 > Looking/thinking more about the use of time_t for storage of date/time for
 > posted messages because your questions (thank you for those), I do see a
 > flaw, after all these years: If the system (OS) time zone is changed (beyond
 > just annual daylight versus standard time changes), then the stored
 > "when_written_time" values in message headers no longer actually reflect the
 > "wallclock time" of the posted message, as was the intent.
 >
 > For example, I post/save a message right now and it reflects (correctly):
 > Dec-20-2024 12:30 PM, PST and it stores the current time_t value that
 > represents that (as can be seen with ctime, etc.).

 > However, if I move to BBS to the U.S. east coast and change the system (OS)
 > time zone setting that message is now reported as having been posted at:
 > Dec-20-2024 03:30 PM, PST

Actually, I was pleased to see that messages are stored in time_t, and in fact the "wall time" you mention is still valid? I think its the right approach, because it doesnt represent that actual time a message was written (on your system anyway).

IE: You posting a message at 12:30pm PST, isnt that 3:30pm on the east coast? Its that PST (aka scfg -> system -> local time zone) setting that is messing things. (I think - because that text is appended to the ctime() results.)

If that was removed, (or rather changed to control how time is *displayed* only), and then reading messages can still be displayed in PST (if that is what you wanted), or shown "local" time zone (EST? dont know what east cost timezone is called).

(Additionally, it should be easier to allow users to show times in "their" local time - if it wasnt PST/EST, or for that matter AEDT/+11:00 then you use the users preferred timezone, instead of the system one when rendering a date.)

IE: Messages, as written as stored in utc (time_t), no change there.
When displaying a message, you set the timezone accordingly, then use ctime()? (Dont know the c/c++ function to display time in a differnet timezone, but I know it is manipulated by TZ environment variable right?

Showing age (which I do like in Sync), its easy to figure out how many hours
ago something was posted, by using time_t (utc ints).

 > If someone posted at 4AM in their local
 > time, that's usually what I want to see in the message header.

That I agree. Hence why I actually like the time offset appended to the time (+11:00 in my case). When I see a message as ... 04:00:00 +06:00, and its 6pm for me, I know immediately that it was written at 9am my time, and thus 9 hrs ago. But I do agree the timezone string looks good too, just harder to the math.


....лоеп

---
 ю Synchronet ю AnsiTEX bringing back videotex but with ANSI

.