[Evolution-hackers] timezone configuration in gnome-control-center

[William Jon McCann <mccannwj pha jhu edu>]

Hi,

Evolution and all e-d-s/libecal clients are required to know the default 
timezone.  It has been difficult to query the system for the timezone 
and, therefore, Evolution prompts the user to select a timezone.  After 
changing the system timezone the user must also know (which isn't 
likely) to go into Evolution's settings and change the default timezone 
there manually as well.

Instead of adding even more timezone selections, other e-d-s consumers 
use the Evolution timezone GConf key.  For example, the clock applet 
does this.  This is even worse because it adds an implicit dependency on 
the Evolution front end and requires that the user know (which isn't 
likely) to go into Evolution's settings to change it.

JP has indicated that he would prefer this type of configuration to be 
GNOME wide and I agree.  So, I filed this:

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=154085

Note: If the timezone is changed manually or by using a different tool 
then the notification doesn't happen.  Which is just what we have now.

The neat thing is that a sysadmin can log in to the system remotely, run 
"sudo gnome-timezone America/Denver" and the console user's settings are 
updated automatically since a message is sent on the system bus.

In the capplet I have also included a Clock configuration page (a la OS 
X).  It would be nice to allow the user to set/override the default 
clock settings for all applications in one place.  For example, one 
could designate the use of 12/24 hour clocks which the clock applet, 
Evolution, etc. could use.

Please let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Jon