From: Ed Lau <ted_spam@...>
Date: 2006-05-15T17:40:43+09:00
Subject: Time class and time zones

Question in brief:
Is it possible to create a Time object with a time zone other than the 
local time zone or GMT?

I'm relatively new to Ruby (coming from the Java world), and after 
reading the docs and playing with Time a fair bit, I've decided that you 
can't create a Time object with an arbitrary time zone. Is this correct?

For example, let's say my local time zone is PDT (GMT-8). Can I create a 
Time object representing 16:00 EDT (GMT-5) in New York? Sure, I know I 
can represent that time as 13:00 PDT or 21:00 GMT, but that's not what I 
want to do.

I'm writing an app that deals with user time zones across the globe. If 
I normalize my users' times to local or GMT, I lose information. I.e., I 
would like my app to remember times exactly as it was input--if a time 
was input as Eastern Time (US), it should be displayed as Eastern Time 
upon retrieval. Can I store the time zone datum in the Time object, or 
must I persist an addition time zone field along with the Time object? 
The downside to keeping track of the time zone externally is that I 
can't take advantage of Time's format method and it just seems kludgy in 
general.

I'd appreciate any feedback. Perhaps I'm going about this the wrong way. 
Thanks much!

--Ed Lau

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