At some point the correct solution is for engineers to collectively agree to refuse to model government-prescribed deviations from convention. Or, put more obliquely, provide more feedback to make it more obvious who is bearing the cost of the complexity of these requirements.
It's a social problem and it calls for a social solution.
I know, there's a lot of disagreement around where the point in question is, but it would serve us well if more engineers were more assertive about stating their opinion on where it is.
This sounds good until you realize that half or more of the software engineers are people working in 3rd world countries who just need a job, or they're H-1B's working in the US who can't afford to make waves.
We would need to form some kind of global union and push back together.
In the US there is a great example of a government agency that works to reduce emergent complexity in situations like this - NIST.
NIST does a lot of work behind the scenes in advanced technical fields. I wonder if it would help if there was a NIST publication enumerating common time and date keeping patterns, like we have for cryptography.
disagree - good products meet their users where they are and bury complexity under the hood. i can't imagine trying to use a calendar app (or any app really) that refuses to operate in any mode other than UTC.
OK but most people would agree that "only UTC" is not an ergonomic default. There is a balance.
Also, are the users where they are because they want to be there, or because long ago some government or religious leader forced something through and they go along with it because of some kind of inertia?
It's a social problem and it calls for a social solution.
I know, there's a lot of disagreement around where the point in question is, but it would serve us well if more engineers were more assertive about stating their opinion on where it is.