Python time-zone handling

Handling time zones is a pretty messy affair overall, but language runtimes may have even bigger problems. As a recent discussion on the Python discussion forum shows, there are considerations beyond those that an operating system or distribution needs to handle. Adding support for the IANA time zone database to the Python standard library, which would allow using names like "America/Mazatlan" to designate time zones, is more complicated than one might think—especially for a language trying to support multiple platforms.

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