[fpc-devel] NowUTC in the RTL

[Tomas Hajny]

On Tue, December 13, 2011 01:08, waldo kitty wrote:
> On 12/9/2011 07:13, Tomas Hajny wrote:
>> On Fri, December 9, 2011 13:07, Jonas Maebe wrote:
>>> On 09 Dec 2011, at 12:28, Michael Van Canneyt wrote:
>>>
>>>> The linux kernel returns UTC time, it always has. Now() converts
>>>> this to local time.
>>>> (as does libc). All NowUTC needs to do is return the kernel time.
>>>
>>> It should only be called NowUTC if it is defined as always returning
>>> UTC on all platforms.
>>
>> Obviously assuming that something like that is possible on a certain
>> platform at all (GO32v2 not having the TZ environment variable defined
>> will simply never be able to provide UTC time; in fact, the same applies
>> for OS/2 / eCS too).
>
> never say never... my OS/2 systems do know about and use the TZ
> environment
> variable... some programs on those systems also use the TZUTC environment
> variable... my oldest OS/2 system is Warp 3 Connect and it has been using
> these
> EVs since Warp 3 Connect was made available to the public ;)
>
> now, i should point out, which i kinda of lightly did above, that the OS
> may or
> may not use these but those programs which know about them can and do...

I don't say never, just that neither DOS nor OS/2 enforce or validate this
setting and thus it's purely up to the user to make sure that it
eventually works. Not even mentioning the attempts of an author of certain
command shell who apparently tries to make the situation even more
confusing (however smart he may be) by trying to convince others that IBM
wanted something else than what they really did :/ (if you don't know whom
or what I talk about, forget it, it isn't very important).

Tomas