samtregar has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Ahoy Monks. I'm working on a project where I need to provide a list of timezones from which the user will make a selection. The project is already using Date::Manip for date math, but it doesn't appear that Date::Manip will cough up a complete list of timezones with descriptions. I did a few searches on CPAN without hiting gold.

Does anyone know of a good module to use for this purpose?

Thanks,
-sam

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Re: Best source for list of timezones?
by saintmike (Vicar) on Oct 15, 2004 at 20:05 UTC
[reply]

      Please be aware that the time zones in certain areas are in constant flux especially with regard to countries that change government frequently. This isn't P.C. but it is accurate.

      Don't forget that daylight savings time is inconsistant in duration and occurance. It is dependent on many factors including religion (certain festivals may delay the change), politics (some towns or counties even within the U.S. will use or drop daylight savings depending on which group of people are in office), region, etc. The site that was referenced earlier does provide some updates but not all locations report the use of daylight savings.

      For server applications, use UTC/GMT and let the client app figure out the time.

      Jason L. Froebe

      Update: noticed that I sent it off before it was near done

      No one has seen what you have seen, and until that happens, we're all going to think that you're nuts. - Jack O'Neil, Stargate SG-1

[reply]
        If "the site that was referenced earlier" meant http://www.twinsun.com/tz/tz-link.htm, they do their very best to be accurate, and release updates 4 or 5 times a year. If you know of any corrections, by all means send them to the mailing list.

        (Also, their data files make for fascinating reading. :)

[reply]

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