[Tfug] A sense of time

[Bexley Hall]

--- Andrew Ayre <andy at britishideas.com> wrote:

> Bexley Hall wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I've periodically posted this question (or
> variations
> > thereof) in a number of different forums. 
> Obviously,
> > never quite happy with the answer(s) I've received
> > (I suspect it is yet another unsolvable problem 
> :< )
> 
> I probably misunderstood the core problem, but if I
> were to write a
> piece of software where events relative to each
> other are important,
> then I would probably get UTC time off an internet
> server. Then when an
> event is created I would store it as a offset from
> the current UTC time.
> Even if the user changes the clock, you still know
> when in UTC time that
> event should occur.

That preserves the order of events but doesn't
solve the problem of the user's expectations of
"time".  The problem lies in the fact that the
user wants to define his own sense of time
(i.e. what time he currently thinks it is, now)
and *expects* the machine to adopt that reference,
also.  But, the machine has a longer (and wider)
memory than he has -- so, all of those "other things"
that have time(stamps) associated with them have
to reflect (or accommodate) this new sense of time
in a manner that doesn't:
- screw up the operation of the device/system
- "surprise" the user

I don't believe it is possible to achieve BOTH
results (i.e. pick one and live with the
consequences of it)


       
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