Time Zones

I know this isn't specific to PHP, but what's the point of using timezones listed like this :http://us2.php.net/manual/en/timezones.america.php? For example "America/Indianapolis" and "America/New_York". What is the problem with EST, EDT, CST, CDT, &c?

From stackoverflow

• http://us2.php.net/date_default_timezone_set

  Quote from page: Note: Since PHP 5.1.0 (when the date/time functions were rewritten), every call to a date/time function will generate a E_NOTICE if the timezone isn't valid, and/or a E_STRICT message if using the system settings or the TZ environment variable.

• Time zones or daylight savings time start/end dates of cities might change (it did occur in the past) but the cities are likely to remain at the same location.

• This is just a different timezone format provided by the Zoneinfo database:

  The time zones in the database are given uniform names, such as “America/New_York”, in an attempt to make them easier to understand by humans and to remove ambiguity.

• 'America/New_York' doesn't depend on the date. While EST is only valid in winter, while in summer you have to change it to EDT. Other problem with 3 letter codes is, that there are conflicts. EST means Eastern Standard Time, but it might be in America or Australia.

  Patrick McDonald : I believe in the US it's Eastern Standard Time (EST), and in Australia it's Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST). It is likely, however, that there are other abbreviation collisions.

  vartec : «Central Summer Time (CST) or Central Daylight Time (CDT), possibly with "Australia" prefixed (ACST or ACDT). The time in the southeastern states become UTC+11, using "Eastern" in the time zone name rather than "Central", with the abbreviations being EST, EDT, AEST, or AEDT.»

  vartec : «In domestic contexts the leading "Australian" is often dropped»

  benc : + because the conflicts concern is correct. There are quite a few, if you read the entire list.

  benc : Also, unless your design has an explicitly local or regional scope, you should be avoiding using the abbreviated time zone acronyms (iCalendar calls this a "TZNAME"), and you should use the more explicit "Area/Location" format (iCalendar calls this "TZID"). Be careful here, often your context is global and you won't realize it until later.

• All regions within a timezone don't follow the same rules. For example, Arizona does not observe Daylight Saving Time.