The Problem with Time & Timezones - Computerphile
Why Hacker News recommends it
It is the go-to funny, accessible explanation of why you should never implement datetime handling yourself, linked in nearly every timezone thread.
What it is
Tom Scott explains for Computerphile why handling time and timezones in code is so hard, walking through a simple web app that computes how long ago something happened. It covers the quirks of timezones and calendars and ends in an exasperated rant.
Recommended by 12 HN commenters across 12 different months, 2014 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec tehmaco · 2015-01 · on “A positive leap second will be introduced at the end of June 2015”
This will probably resonate with people here[1]. A brilliant video by Tom Scott for Computerphile, where he starts to explain what coding timezones correctly is like and by the end of it is in full polite-mini-rant-mode :D [1] [this video]
Strong rec yboris · 2021-02 · on “Timezone Bullshit”
Obligatory post to Computerphile episode about Timezones - a must watch for developers just starting out with Timezones [this video]
Recommends sk5t · 2014-12 · on “The Death and Life of the 13-Month Calendar”
An excellent video touching on some of the intractable aspects of our datetime-marking system's personality quirks: [this video]
Recommends myfonj · 2015-03 · on “How to save datetimes for future events”
There is a great (humorous) Computerphile video about this topic: "The Problem with Time & Timezones" [0] [0] [this video]
Recommends zeta0134 · 2016-07 · on “Time Zones Aren’t Offsets – Offsets Aren’t Time Zones”
Computerphile did an excellent overview of time zones and all their complexities in the context of programming: [this video] I was quite surprised by some of the stranger rules out there, especially the regions that chose to skip a day for whatever reason. Timezones are complex! Far, far more complex than simple offsets.
Recommends wtfishackernews · 2016-11 · on “Time to Dump Time Zones”
>Just try to explain to everyday people just how hard the problem is A bit off topic but Computerphile / Tom Scott did an excellent video doing that [this video]
Recommends psteinweber · 2018-05 · on “UTC Is Enough for Everyone, Right?”
I really enjoyed this. And I think no one mentioned the very related Computerphile video yet: "The Problem with Time & Timezones " [this video] Same topic, equally entertaining (not AS geeky though).
Recommends enhdless · 2019-10 · on “US Constitution – A Git repo with history of edits”
> such a reasonable, trivial task? Tom Scott has a pretty good video explaining exactly why writing code about time is not trivial: The Problem with Time & Timezones - Computerphile [this video]