Re: [PATCH] Make display-time-mode time zone configurable

[Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu>]

Mark Oteiza wrote:
> Paul Eggert<eggert@cs.ucla.edu>  writes:
>> >Yes, we are indeed going around in circles. The problem is that I
>> >haven't seen a real use case yet.
> To me it seems you have simply dismissed the use cases already
> mentioned.

Perhaps the problem is that we have different interpretations of the phrase "use 
case". I'm looking for something an ordinary (non-expert) user might want to do. 
And I'm looking for a scenario described at a reasonably high level involving 
how ordinary users interact with Emacs.

> In time-stamp.el it is
> considered worthwhile having the option to standardize time stamps in a
> particular non-default time zone.

Yes, and the use case there is clear. People in different time zones might want 
to work on shared files, and might want to standardize on a particular time zone 
(UTC, say; or US Eastern Time) for the strings in those files, regardless of the 
time zone that Emacs ordinarily uses on the people's various computers. This is 
a simple, high-level scenario that easily justifies a per-file time zone.

> It is not unusual for a system to be
> configured to the "wrong" time zone (perhaps UTC), and it would be nice to
> have the mode line clock show the "right" time.

Is the use case that the underlying operating system is configured to the 
"wrong" time zone and this configuration cannot be changed? But if that's the 
problem, an Emacs user can easily fix it by using (setenv "TZ" ...) with the 
"right" time zone. No new Emacs feature is needed for this use case.

I suppose you're thinking of some other use case, but I don't know what it is.