Dumb questions about GMT offset in tm structure


Sat Feb 25 02:52:01 UTC 2012


> > Dumb question #2:  if there's a way to turn tm structures ...
> > does .. [ being able to deduce it ] ...
> > obviate the need for a GMT offset element in the tm structure?

> Certainly, this is possible. . .But the zone offset information is trivially
> available to localtime, it seems like it can't hurt to provide this extra
> information, essentially for free.

The only place I can think of that it might hurt is if someone has squirreled
away tm structures in a disk file.  If that's happened, the committee's
desire to avoid breaking existing code would argue against changing the tm
structure.

Now if you change the structure's name, then code will break noisily--
something the committee seems willing to accept.
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