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From: dptom@endor.corp.sgi.com (Tom Arnold)
Newsgroups: comp.databases,comp.software-eng,comp.infosystems
Subject: Re: Time Zones HELP!
Message-ID: <1991Apr5.234855.14441@odin.corp.sgi.com>
Date: 5 Apr 91 23:48:55 GMT
References: <1991Apr5.103756.18982@news.cs.indiana.edu>
Sender: news@odin.corp.sgi.com (Net News)
Reply-To: dptom@endor.corp.sgi.com (Tom Arnold)
Organization: sgi
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In article <1991Apr5.103756.18982@news.cs.indiana.edu>,
vogt@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Michael Vogt) writes:
|> Hi,
|> 
|> I'm hoping you can help us with a design problem we have come
|> across.
|> 
|> What date/time format do people use when dealing with data
|> that crosses date and time zones?  How are time changes like
|> daylight
|> savings time and standard time dealt with?

We encountered a similar problem putting together a worldwide
marketing information database.  Sales transactions occur through out
the world.  For instance, we are in Mountain View, CA on the west
coast.  Our factory in Kawasaki, Japan would commit transactions a day
ahead of us.  This works great until the end of a fiscal period.  Then
What?  Our approach was to use GMT at 
the database.  In the interface, the GMT value stored in the database
is converted to display in the local time zone. This allows us to
manage and recognize the exact sequence of transactions throughout our
worldwide network.