[fpc-devel] New functions for time zone

[Mark Morgan Lloyd]

LacaK wrote:
> Hi *,
> I noticed, that there was just added new functions for supporting TZ in 
> rev. 21865 and 21866
> Now function GetLocalTimeOffset: Integer returns offset *in minutes* and 
> later in functions LocalTimeToUniversal and UniversalTimeToLocal are 
> used commands to transform it to TDateTime using EncodeTime.
> (f.e. EncodeTime(TZOffset div 60, TZOffset mod 60, 0, 0))
> 
> My idea is change function GetLocalTimeOffset: TDateTime to return 
> TDateTime (offset in fraction of days - native FPC datetime format)
> i.e. current implementation + "Result := Result / MinsPerDay"
> I think, that it will be useful, because in real applications we will 
> need on each usage transform minutes to use it in Datetime calculations.
> (LocalDateTime := UTCDateTime - GetLocalTimeOffset;)
> 
> Then functions LocalTimeToUniversal and UniversalTimeToLocal will be 
> simple addition or subtraction like:
> function UniversalTimeToLocal(UT: TDateTime; TZOffset : TDateTime): 
> TDateTime;
> begin
>   Result := UT - TZOffset;
> end;

Are there already cases where a TDateTime is used as an interval rather 
than for its original purpose? If not then I'd suggest that a new type 
is in order, taking a leaf from the book of at least some SQL 
implementations which have distinct timestamp and interval types.

-- 
Mark Morgan Lloyd
markMLl .AT. telemetry.co .DOT. uk

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