<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 5.00.3315.2870" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=020534214-21062002>Help! Can someone
explain the algorithm for TimeZone::operator==? That is, how do you know if two
time zones are the same or different?</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=020534214-21062002></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=020534214-21062002>I'm motivated by a
UI design issue that's become hot around here. We allow users to select a time
zone from a list. In our case, the list come from the ICU package, which I
understand uses the same list as the Olsen package. Trouble is, this list is
huge and bewildering, with a great deal of apparent redundancy. For example,
there are 37 different time zones listed at GMT-04:00. This makes for a
usability issue, as it becomes hard to search and confidently select the correct
choice. And many are convinced that the long is just wrong because they can see
a much shorter one used in Windows.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=020534214-21062002></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial><SPAN class=020534214-21062002>We want to
generate a shorter list, but we're also reluctant to just throw out legitimate
choices. If two time zones are equivalent, </SPAN><SPAN
class=020534214-21062002>then it's </SPAN><SPAN class=020534214-21062002>OK
to drop one from the list. But how can you tell? How does Windows do
it?</SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
class=020534214-21062002></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
class=020534214-21062002></SPAN>----</FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>Regards,</FONT> <BR><FONT face=Arial
size=2>Kerry</FONT> </P>
<DIV> </DIV></BODY></HTML>