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The Problem with Time & Timezones - Computerphile

Computerphile · 4.4M views · 2013-12-30 · 10:13

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Overview

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.

On Hacker News

It is the go-to funny, accessible explanation of why you should never implement datetime handling yourself, linked in nearly every timezone thread.

Recommended by 12 HN people across 12 months · HN mentions 2014–2026

Topics

Software (other)Python, Ruby & scripting languages
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timezonesdatetimetom scottcomputerphileprogramming pitfalls

What people said

yboris · 2021-02 · Strong recommendation

Obligatory post to Computerphile episode about Timezones - a must watch for developers just starting out with Timezones [VIDEO]

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tehmaco · 2015-01 · Strong recommendation

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] [VIDEO]

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wolrah · 2026-03 · Recommendation

That might work for the current form of the country-specific time zones officially acknowledged by countries that exist in TLD form, but the tz database contains many more current time zones more importantly piles of historical time zones. Representing just the historical forms of currently recognized time zones in DNS would be a mess, without even getting in to those that are not associated with a country that currently exists and has a TLD. edit: This is a great video explaining a lot of the reasons why time zones are nowhere close to as straightforward as you may think: [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Computerphile, played through YouTube.

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