On Fri, Apr 23, 2021 at 09:45:14AM +0800, Shironeko wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I originally thought having the timezone in the header of the file would make
> things simpler, since it meant all the timestamp would be in the same timezone,
> rather than potentially different ones. But it seems that that might not be
> inline with how others use their org files.
> 
> org actually already has a keyword for a per entry timezone, 
> https://orgmode.org/manual/iCalendar-Export.html
> The problem with it is that no other facility of org plugs into that, it only
> counts when exporting into other calendar systems, which I think is strange. If
> it is indeed better to be able to set timezone per entry, then I think
> supporting this properly in org would be best.

Interesting idea. If I understand the doc correctly, the iCalendar
exporter picks up timezone information from a property of the
"enclosing" heading, if present.

> Only having CST etc timezone abbreviations is indeed problematic, because it is
> ambiguous and kinda difficult to enter, also people don't necessarily
> communicate with the correct designation (maybe they mean EDT but used EST, but
> the time is unambiguously EDT).

They seem more fragile than time offsets, yes. Much implicit environment.
Some folks seem to still have strong preferences for that (not me, mind
you).

> With repeat tasks I don't think it would be a problem for tasks that repeats
> daily or longer (since by definition they add to the day/month/year directly,
> not counting how many days there are in a month for example). For hourly
> repeating tasks it is indeed ambiguous, but I don't have an idea on what would
> be better. Maybe people that have those can chime in.

Actually, repeating tasks are clear use cases for those "mushy" time
zones: "we meet every second and fourth Thursday every month at 19h30" 
almost surely means "at whatever time the local clocks say it is half
past seven in the afternoon", so daylight saving corrections will
apply.

Decisions, decisions :-)

Don't get me wrong: I'm not trying to discourage you to pick that up,
I'm happy someone has the spirit to do so!

Cheers
 - t