Bug 146232

Version:            (using KDE KDE 3.5.6)
Installed from:    Ubuntu Packages
Compiler:            
OS:                Linux

The clock applet appears to order the displayed zones first by geographical region (ordered alphabetically, of course: America, Asia, Atlantic etc.), then alphabetically within each region.  This is crazy:  If i want the time in Calcutta, it's not right between Berlin and Chicago, nor is it between Tokyo and Kabul.  It's (in my en_US tooltip) after Panama and before Katmandu.

Meanwhile, Berlin appears near the bottom of the tooltip, right before Honolulu.  And the most frustrating for me, is that the US timezones appear in the order:  America/Chicago (UTC-0500), America/Denver (UTC-0600), America/Los Angeles (UTC-0700), America/New York (UTC-0400).  From my point of view (in Portland, Oregon), they order should be: Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, New York.

If the clock is going to choose an order to display the timezones without letting me change the order, then at the very least it should sort them by relative distance from UTC, or, better, from the International Date Line.  Here's what i would recommend:

(1) Put the user-chosen timezone closest to the International Date Line, but to its east (for example, Pacific/Honolulu, in my list) at the top of the tooltip display.  That's the least advanced timezone.  Then go in order, with UTC roughly in the center, until the timezone closest to the IDL, but to its west (for example, Australia/Sydney, in my list) appears at the bottom.

Additionally, the dates and times should be better aligned.  I would recommend changing the order of the display from City/Time/Date to Date/Time/City, as this allows for easy alignment, assuming a font with tabular-width digits (where all digits are the same width).   This way, not only can i see where midnight is, but i can some geography in the process.  (Who knew that Accra was at the same longitude as London?)

Alternatively, the clock applet should allow me to sort the timezones, so that i can do that ordering