[Python-Dev] Draft PEP for time zone support.

[Brian Curtin]

On Wed, Dec 12, 2012 at 9:56 AM, Lennart Regebro <regebro at gmail.com> wrote:
> General comments:
>
>
> It seems like the consensus is moving towards making sure there always is a
> database available. If this means including it in the standard Python
> distribution as well, or only on Windows, I don't know, opinions on that are
> welcome.
>
> The steps to look for a database would then change to:
>
>   1. The path specified, if not None.
>
>   2. The module for timezone "overrides".
>
>   3. The OS database.
>
>   4. The database included in Python.
>
> We need to determine if a warning should be raised in case of 4 or not, as
> well as the name for the override module. I think the word "override" here is
> possibly unclear, I'd prefer something like "timezone-update" or similar.
>
> I'm personally a bit sceptical to writing a special updater/installer just
> for this. I don't want to have a special unique way to install this package.
>
> As it comes to OS packages, Christian Heimes pointed out that most Windows
> installations today has Java installed, and kept updated, and it has a
> zoneinfo database. We could consider using that on Windows as well, although
> it admittedly feels quite icky.

Depending on Java being installed or even installing it alongside
Python would be a funny April Fools prank. This can't happen.

I don't think it's all that bad to include a small script on Windows
which runs every few days to check PyPI, then present an option to
update the info. This is what Java itself is doing anyway.