Rails - Apr 2009 - Strategy for handling historical dates while avoiding timezones

Currently using t.datetime, dates get stored with a timezone and a non-
zero time. This is bad.

A date restricted to the Unix epoch is unacceptable. The date range
must be at least back to 1800.

Need a recommendation on what SQL column type, Rails column type and
Ruby object type would be the best choice, and how to avoid timezones.

On Apr 25, 1:27 am, david <da...-cm7vr8cjTZ9BDgjK7y7TUQ@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
> Currently using t.datetime, dates get stored with a timezone and a non-
> zero time. This is bad.
>
> A date restricted to the Unix epoch is unacceptable. The date range
> must be at least back to 1800.
>
> Need a recommendation on what SQL column type, Rails column type and
> Ruby object type would be the best choice, and how to avoid timezones.
an sql DATE column (which maps to the ruby Date type) would seem to
fit. You''ve got several thousand years of range, no timezone problems
since it''s a pure calendar day type.

Fred

> an sql DATE column (which maps to the ruby Date type) would seem to
> fit. You''ve got several thousand years of range, no timezone
problems
> since it''s a pure calendar day type.
Yes, indeed, that solves my problem. Ta very much. Just didn''t know
where to look.

90% of my problems with Ruby/Rails eventually translate into: "Where
is the documentation/source code for the thing that does X?"

If I had a general solution to THAT problem, life would be sweet.

David