[tz] Utah may drop DST

[Paul_Koning at dell.com]

On Oct 16, 2014, at 3:49 AM, Zoidsoft <zoidsoft at gmail.com> wrote:

> This might seem like a stupid question, but now that most of the world is connected by computers, smart phones, etc... why don't we develop an app that collects time settings and standards along with GPS for every device world wide as to what is showing on the clock?  Such an app could then automatically generate zone rules along with location data for each of those rules.  It would be a complex exercise in set theory getting the program to recognize "groups" of similar data but I think it could be done.

You’re confusing the cart with the horse.

The way that all those devices know the correct local time is precisely because they have the TZ database built into them.  So you’re proposing updating the TZ database from the existing TZ database.  Clearly that can’t work.  

There is no way to automate this.  The source material for the TZ database is human action — mostly the decisions of politicians, made up when they feel like it and announced anywhere from years to minutes ahead of time.  The only possible way to update the TZ database is to find news about those actions, translate them from legalese into TZ syntax, and edit the database text.

	paul