- tz - lists.iana.org

A Timezone Gazetteer (and Map Maybe)
by Dave Skinner March 20, 1997

March 20, 1997

Any help in obtaining either or both of the following Internal Political Boundary Maps as Digital Line Graphs (DLGs) instead of Bitmaps and Surveyor Type Legal Descriptions of the Internal Timezone Boundaries for the countries that are currently composed of multiple different timezones would be appreciated. Note that in the United States, this resolution has to go down to the county level, not just the state level, and possibly only a surveyor type legal description will do in cases like America/Indiana/Marengo where the current description in the timezone database is "part of Crawford County". I believe that I can easily get the county maps for all 50 states in this form, but I still need a surveyor type legal description of situations like this, and complete lists of counties by timezone in states that have more than one timezone. At the international level, I already located a copy of the 132 MB CIA Digital Line Graph database of the world that was released around 1990 under the Freedom of Information Act. It is composed only of line strokes, and my ultimate goal is polygons. So, the complete set of polygons that describe the current international boundary of each country and any internal regional timezones therein still have to be generated. Nevertheless, it does have international political boundaries as well as the boundaries of the states of the United States and the provinces of Canada. Other internal political boundaries within the various countries are missing, however, and the database also suffers from being out-of-date. It is circa 1989. Back on the good news front, in case it should prove useful, the database does have all significant rivers and other bodies of water down to a fairly fine level of detail. So, unless I find a better source of data, I need to bring this database up-to-date. To that end, I also need the current international political boundaries, probably in surveyor type legal descriptions, that correct all that has happened, especially in Europe and Asia, since the reunification of Germany and the breakup of the Soviet Union. At the internal political boundary level, I analyzed the timezone database and extracted a complete list of all countries (21 in all) that have multiple different current timezones, where "different" is defined as either a different current GMT offset and/or a different current daylight savings time rule. This list is summarized in the table that appears below. Within this table are 6 timezones 9.* australasia/New_Zealand 11.* europe:Norway 12.* europe:Portugal 14.* europe:Spain 20.* southamerica:Chile 21.* southamerica:Ecuador that were edited to have an asterisk ("*") appended to their number to indicate that it seems obvious where to draw a boundary between their constituent timezones. It seems obvious because the two distinct timezones involved in each case are distinguished from each other by one being on the mainland and the other being on an offshore island. This leaves the following 15 countries 1. africa:Zaire 2. asia:Indonesia 3. asia:Japan 4. asia:Kazakhstan 5. australasia:Australia 6. australasia:French_Polynesia 7. australasia:Kiribati 8. australasia:Micronesia 10. europe:Denmark 13. europe:Russia 15. europe:Ukraine 16. northamerica:Canada 17. northamerica:Mexico 18. northamerica:United_States 19. southamerica:Brazil where the exact boundary lines between their internal regional timezones must still be identified. File:Country GMT DST Timezones Offset Rule 1. africa:Zaire Africa/Kinshasa 1:00 None Africa/Lubumbashi 2:00 None 2. asia:Indonesia Asia/Jakarta 7:00 None Asia/Ujung_Pandang 8:00 None Asia/Jayapura 9:00 None 3. asia:Japan Asia/Ishigaki 8:00 None Asia/Tokyo 9:00 None 4. asia:Kazakhstan Asia/Aqtau 4:00 E-Eur Asia/Aqtobe 5:00 E-Eur Asia/Alma-Ata 6:00 E-Eur 5. australasia:Australia Indian/Christmas 7:00 None Australia, Western 8:00 Australia/Perth 8:00 None Australia, Central 9:30 Australia/Adelaide 9:30 AS Australia/Darwin 9:30 Aus Australia, Eastern 10:00 Australia/Brisbane 10:00 AQ Australia/Sydney 10:00 AN Australia/Lord_Howe 10:30 LH 6. australasia:French_Polynesia Pacific/Tahiti -10:00 None Pacific/Marquesas -9:30 None Pacific/Gambier -9:00 None 7. australasia:Kiribati Pacific/Tarawa 12:00 None Pacific/Enderbury 13:00 None Pacific/Kiritimati 14:00 None 8. australasia:Micronesia Pacific/Yap 10:00 None Pacific/Ponape (Pohnpei) 11:00 None Pacific/Kosrae 12:00 None 9.* australasia/New_Zealand Pacific/Auckland 12:00 NZ Pacific/Chatham 12:45 Chatham 10. europe:Denmark America/Thule -4:00 Thule America/Godthab (Nuuk) -3:00 EU America/Scoresbysund (Ittoqqortoormiit) -1:00 EU Atlantic/Faeroe (Faroe Islands) 0:00 EU Europe/Copenhagen 1:00 EU 11.* europe:Norway Atlantic/Jan_Mayen -1:00 None Europe/Oslo 1:00 EU 12.* europe:Portugal Atlantic/Azores -1:00 EU Europe/Lisbon 0:00 EU 13. europe:Russia Europe/Kaliningrad 2:00 Russia Europe/Moscow 3:00 Russia Europe/Samara 4:00 Russia Europe/Yekaterinburg 5:00 Russia Asia/Novosibirsk 6:00 Russia Asia/Krasnoyarsk 7:00 Russia Asia/Irkutsk 8:00 Russia Asia/Yakutsk 9:00 Russia Asia/Vladivostok 10:00 Russia Asia/Magadan 11:00 Russia Asia/Kamchatka 12:00 Russia Asia/Anadyr 13:00 Russia 14.* europe:Spain Atlantic/Canary 0:00 EU Europe/Madrid 1:00 EU 15. europe:Ukraine Europe/Kiev 2:00 EU Europe/Simferopol 3:00 Crimea 16. northamerica:Canada Canada, Pacific -8:00 America/Vancouver -8:00 Vanc Canada, Mountain -7:00 America/Dawson_Creek -7:00 None America/Edmonton -7:00 Edm Canada, Central -6:00 America/Regina -6:00 None America/Winnipeg -6:00 Winn Canada, Eastern -5:00 America/Montreal -5:00 Mont Canada, Atlantic -4:00 America/Halifax -4:00 Halifax Canada, Newfoundland -3:30 America/St_Johns -3:30 StJohns 17. northamerica:Mexico Mexico, Pacific -8:00 America/Tijuana -8:00 Mexico Mexico, Mountain -7:00 America/Mazatlan -7:00 Mexico Mexico, Central -6:00 America/Mexico_City -6:00 Mexico 18. northamerica:United_States United_States, Samoa -11:00 Pacific/Midway -11:00 None United_States, Hawaii-Aleutian -10:00 America/Adak -10:00 US Pacific/Honolulu -10:00 None United_States, Alaska -9:00 America/Anchorage -9:00 US United_States, Pacific -8:00 America/Los_Angeles -8:00 US United_States, Mountain -7:00 America/Denver -7:00 US America/Phoenix -7:00 None United_States, Central -6:00 America/Chicago -6:00 US United_States, Eastern -5:00 America/Indianapolis -5:00 None America/New_York -5:00 US 19. southamerica:Brazil America/Porto_Acre -5:00 None Brazil, Western -4:00 America/Cuiaba -4:00 Brazil America/Manaus -4:00 None Brazil, Eastern -3:00 America/Fortaleza -3:00 None America/Sao_Paulo -3:00 Brazil America/Noronha -2:00 None 20.* southamerica:Chile Pacific/Easter -6:00 Chile America/Santiago -4:00 Chile 21.* southamerica:Ecuador Pacific/Galapagos -6:00 None America/Guayaquil -5:00 None The following list of timezone database entries that are currently operational duplicates of table entries above is provided for completeness. This list was generated by Paul Eggert. Africa/Ceuta (duplicate of Europe/Madrid) America/Boise (duplicate of America/Denver) America/Dawson, America/Whitehorse \ (duplicates of America/Vancouver) America/Detroit, America/Louisville \ (duplicates of America/New_York) America/Glace_Bay, America/Goose_Bay, America/Pangnirtung \ (duplicates of America/Halifax) America/Ensenada (duplicate of America/Tijuana) America/Indiana/Knox, America/Indiana/Marengo, \ America/Indiana/Vevay (duplicates of America/Indianapolis) America/Inuvik, America/Yellowknife \ (duplicates of America/Edmonton) America/Iqaluit, America/Nipigon, America/Thunder_Bay \ (duplicates of America/Montreal) America/Juneau, America/Nome, America/Yakutat \ (duplicates of America/Anchorage) America/Maceio (duplicate of America/Sao_Paulo) America/Menominee (duplicate of America/Chicago) America/Rainy_River, America/Rankin_Inlet \ (duplicates of America/Winnipeg) America/Swift_Current (duplicate of America/Regina) Asia/Omsk (duplicate of Asia/Novosibirsk) Atlantic/Madeira (duplicate of Europe/Lisbon) Australia/Broken_Hill (duplicate of Australia/Adelaide) Australia/Hobart, Australia/Melbourne \ (duplicates of Australia/Sydney) Australia/Lindeman (duplicate of Australia/Brisbane) Pacific/Truk (duplicate of Pacific/Yap) Anyhow, thanks in advance for any help that you end up providing. Dave Skinner dave(a)kirdu.jpl.nasa.gov P.S. I also wanted to thank both Paul Eggert and Eric Ulevik for replying to my original email (to tz(a)elsie.nci.nih.gov) and I especially wanted to thank Paul Eggert for reviewing my original version of this email as well.

2 1

Paul Eggert's IDT patch makes sense
by Chris Carrier March 17, 1997

March 17, 1997

Some thoughts on Paul Eggert's proposed Israel DST rules for =>1999. The proposed rules of the third Friday in March to the third Sunday in September are very reasonable. It seems that the dates of the change are always set to avoid Jewish holy days/periods and the Jewish Sabbath, sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, and Paul's proposed rules do that. Passover, Nisan 15 in the Jewish calendar, is the first full moon after March 27 in the Gregorian calendar in this century. A third-Friday in March beginning prevents the beginning of DST from running into Passover. (Back when the Jewish calendar was determined on the basis of observation, Passover was supposed to be the first full moon after the vernal equinox (which survives in Christian Easter rules). I was informed that a group of rabbis met in Jerusalem to discuss reform of the Jewish calendar, but were unable to come to a conclusion (although the person who told me this suggested the rabbis' real reason for doing nothing was to avoid a schism such as the one that happened in Christendom in 1582 when the Gregorian calendar was implemented and the Catholics adopted it and the Protestants and Greek/Russian Orthodox did not.)) Although the Jewish New Year currently can fall during the date range 15-21 September, it can never be on a Sunday. Neither can Yom Kippur (which can occur prior to September 21) be a Sunday, so a third Sunday in September rule avoids that as well. (Tishri 1 can never fall on Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday because Yom Kippur must avoid Friday or Sunday and Succoth (Tishri 21) must avoid Saturday). However, New Years is celebrated for two days -- Tishri 1 and 2 -- and if Tishri 1 falls on Saturday, the clock change might be moved from Sunday to the preceding Friday. Also, the third Friday in March to third Sunday in September satisfies the current Israeli legal requirement of =>150 days of DST per year. Side note: there are always 154 days between the third Friday in March and the third Sunday in September and they are always the same dates in their respective months (the 15th in 1996, the 21st in 1997). I know that this is a bit of a digression, but I do think that Paul's patch does have some sound reasoning behind it. Chris Carrier

1 0

Chatham Islands time
by Chris Carrier March 17, 1997

March 17, 1997

Some thoughts on the Chatham Islands time of time change. The legal standard time of the Chathams is GMT+12:45, and they observed DST on the same dates as New Zealand, which they are legally tied to. When NZ was making its time changes at 2:00 NZ time, the Chathams changed at 2:45 Chatham time, which was the same time (14:00 GMT of the previous day in both places). Since NZ just changed at 1:00, I would presume the change in the Chathams was at 1:45. Chris Carrier

1 0

proposed tz patch for New Zealand, Israel
by Paul Eggert March 17, 1997

March 17, 1997

Here are proposed patches to the tz database for the recent minor change to the New Zealand rules reported by Jeffrey Connell. I'm also taking the liberty of proposing to regularize the formatting of the recent changes for Israel, along with one substantive change for Israel: a simpler and hopefully more accurate (though still undoubtedly incorrect) prediction for Israeli DST rules from 1999 on. (The existing prediction here seems to be based on the old late-1980s Israeli rules, and it stops after 2009.) =================================================================== RCS file: RCS/australasia,v retrieving revision 1997.1 retrieving revision 1997.1.1.1 diff -c -r1997.1 -r1997.1.1.1 *** australasia 1997/01/21 14:11:10 1997.1 --- australasia 1997/03/16 07:24:58 1997.1.1.1 *************** *** 305,313 **** Rule NZ 1990 max - Oct Sun>=1 2:00s 1:00 D Rule NZ 1975 only - Feb 23 2:00s 0 S Rule NZ 1976 1989 - Mar Sun>=1 2:00s 0 S ! Rule NZ 1990 max - Mar Sun>=15 2:00s 0 S Rule Chatham 1990 max - Oct Sun>=1 2:45s 1:00 D ! Rule Chatham 1991 max - Mar Sun>=15 2:45s 0 S # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Pacific/Auckland 11:39:04 - LMT 1868 11:30 NZ NZ%sT 1940 Sep 29 2:00 --- 305,315 ---- Rule NZ 1990 max - Oct Sun>=1 2:00s 1:00 D Rule NZ 1975 only - Feb 23 2:00s 0 S Rule NZ 1976 1989 - Mar Sun>=1 2:00s 0 S ! Rule NZ 1990 1996 - Mar Sun>=15 2:00s 0 S ! Rule NZ 1997 max - Mar Sun>=15 2:00 0 S Rule Chatham 1990 max - Oct Sun>=1 2:45s 1:00 D ! Rule Chatham 1991 1996 - Mar Sun>=15 2:45s 0 S ! Rule Chatham 1997 max - Mar Sun>=15 2:45 0 S # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Pacific/Auckland 11:39:04 - LMT 1868 11:30 NZ NZ%sT 1940 Sep 29 2:00 *************** *** 832,837 **** --- 834,850 ---- # gives the NZ rules but with transitions at 2:45 local standard time. # Guess that they adopted DST in 1990. + # From "J. Sean Connell" <ankh(a)canuck.gen.nz> (1997-03-16): + # As I sit here and change all my other clocks, I would like to let y'all know + # that New Zealand changed its DST rules this year; instead of NZDT 02:59:59 + # becoming NZST 02:00:00, NZDT 01:59:59 now -> NZST 01:00:00. I'm afraid that + # I can't point you to any confirmatory articles, but apparently it was only + # decided a few weeks ago. + # + # From Paul Eggert (1997-03-15): + # We'll assume Chatham followed suit. + + ############################################################################### # Fiji =================================================================== RCS file: RCS/asia,v retrieving revision 1997.3 retrieving revision 1997.3.1.1 diff -c -r1997.3 -r1997.3.1.1 *** asia 1997/03/04 14:58:18 1997.3 --- asia 1997/03/16 07:24:58 1997.3.1.1 *************** *** 508,515 **** # From Ephraim Silverberg (ephraim(a)cs.huji.ac.il) 1997-03-04: - # Zone Information Compiler (ZIC) File for the State of Israel (1989-2009) - # According to the Office of the Secretary General of the Ministry of # Interior, there is NO set rule for Daylight-Savings/Standard time changes. # Each year they decide anew what havoc to wreak on the country. However, --- 508,513 ---- *************** *** 525,551 **** # change back to standard time took place on Sunday night instead of Saturday # night to avoid conflicts with the Jewish New Year. ! # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S ! Rule Zion 1989 only - Apr 30 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 1989 only - Sep 3 0:00 0:00 S ! Rule Zion 1990 only - Mar 25 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 1990 only - Aug 26 0:00 0:00 S ! Rule Zion 1991 only - Mar 24 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 1991 only - Sep 1 0:00 0:00 S ! Rule Zion 1992 only - Mar 29 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 1992 only - Sep 6 0:00 0:00 S ! Rule Zion 1993 only - Apr 2 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 1993 only - Sep 5 0:00 0:00 S # The dates for 1994-1995 were obtained from Office of the Spokeswoman for the # Ministry of Interior, Jerusalem, Israel. The spokeswoman can be reached by # calling the office directly at 972-2-6701447 or 972-2-6701448. # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S ! Rule Zion 1994 only - Apr 1 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 1994 only - Aug 28 0:00 0:00 S ! Rule Zion 1995 only - Mar 31 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 1995 only - Sep 3 0:00 0:00 S # The dates for 1996 were determined by the Minister of Interior of the # time, Haim Ramon. The official announcement regarding 1996-1998 --- 523,549 ---- # change back to standard time took place on Sunday night instead of Saturday # night to avoid conflicts with the Jewish New Year. ! # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S ! Rule Zion 1989 only - Apr 30 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 1989 only - Sep 3 0:00 0 S ! Rule Zion 1990 only - Mar 25 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 1990 only - Aug 26 0:00 0 S ! Rule Zion 1991 only - Mar 24 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 1991 only - Sep 1 0:00 0 S ! Rule Zion 1992 only - Mar 29 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 1992 only - Sep 6 0:00 0 S ! Rule Zion 1993 only - Apr 2 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 1993 only - Sep 5 0:00 0 S # The dates for 1994-1995 were obtained from Office of the Spokeswoman for the # Ministry of Interior, Jerusalem, Israel. The spokeswoman can be reached by # calling the office directly at 972-2-6701447 or 972-2-6701448. # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S ! Rule Zion 1994 only - Apr 1 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 1994 only - Aug 28 0:00 0 S ! Rule Zion 1995 only - Mar 31 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 1995 only - Sep 3 0:00 0 S # The dates for 1996 were determined by the Minister of Interior of the # time, Haim Ramon. The official announcement regarding 1996-1998 *************** *** 560,599 **** # # ftp://ftp.huji.ac.il/pub/tz/announcements/1997.ps.gz # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S ! Rule Zion 1996 only - Mar 15 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 1996 only - Sep 16 0:00 0:00 S ! Rule Zion 1997 only - Mar 21 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 1997 only - Sep 14 0:00 0:00 S ! Rule Zion 1998 only - Mar 20 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 1998 only - Oct 18 0:00 0:00 S ! ! # These rules are probably wrong, but they are close approximations (usually ! # within a few weeks): ! ! # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S ! Rule Zion 1999 only - Apr 11 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 1999 only - Sep 5 0:00 0:00 S ! Rule Zion 2000 only - Apr 30 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 2000 only - Sep 24 0:00 0:00 S ! Rule Zion 2001 only - Apr 15 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 2001 only - Sep 9 0:00 0:00 S ! Rule Zion 2002 only - Apr 7 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 2002 only - Sep 1 0:00 0:00 S ! Rule Zion 2003 only - Apr 27 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 2003 only - Sep 21 0:00 0:00 S ! Rule Zion 2004 only - Apr 18 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 2004 only - Sep 12 0:00 0:00 S ! Rule Zion 2005 only - May 1 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 2005 only - Sep 25 0:00 0:00 S ! Rule Zion 2006 only - Apr 23 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 2006 only - Sep 17 0:00 0:00 S ! Rule Zion 2007 only - Apr 15 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 2007 only - Sep 9 0:00 0:00 S ! Rule Zion 2008 only - Apr 27 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 2008 only - Sep 21 0:00 0:00 S ! Rule Zion 2009 only - Apr 19 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 2009 only - Sep 13 0:00 0:00 S # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Asia/Jerusalem 2:20:56 - LMT 1880 --- 558,577 ---- # # ftp://ftp.huji.ac.il/pub/tz/announcements/1997.ps.gz + # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S + Rule Zion 1996 only - Mar 15 0:00 1:00 D + Rule Zion 1996 only - Sep 16 0:00 0 S + Rule Zion 1997 only - Mar 21 0:00 1:00 D + Rule Zion 1997 only - Sep 14 0:00 0 S + Rule Zion 1998 only - Mar 20 0:00 1:00 D + Rule Zion 1998 only - Oct 18 0:00 0 S + + # From Paul Eggert (1997-03-15): + # Here are guesses for rules after 1998. + # They are probably wrong, but they are more likely than no DST at all. # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S ! Rule Zion 1999 max - Mar Fri>=15 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 1999 max - Sep Sun>=15 0:00 0 S # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Asia/Jerusalem 2:20:56 - LMT 1880

2 1

Daylight savings time in New Zealand
by J. Sean Connell March 15, 1997

March 15, 1997

As I sit here and change all my other clocks, I would like to let y'all know that New Zealand changed its DST rules this year; instead of NZDT 02:59:59 becoming NZST 02:00:00, NZDT 01:59:59 now -> NZST 01:00:00. I'm afraid that I can't point you to any confirmatory articles, but apparently it was only decided a few weeks ago... -- Jeffrey Connell | Systems Adminstrator, ICONZ ankh(a)canuck.gen.nz | Any opinions stated above are not my employers', ankh(a)iconz.co.nz | not my boyfriend's, my priest's, my God's, my #include <stddisc.h> | my friends', and probably not even my own. ---------------------------+-------------------------------------------------- Fingerprint: 1024/2B8B116D | Key at http://www.canuck.gen.nz/~ankh/pgpkey.html

1 0

tzcode1997c.tar.gz and tzdata1997d.tar.gz
by ado March 8, 1997

March 8, 1997

The files ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzcode1997c.tar.gz and ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzdata1997d.tar.gz are now available. Included are changes to "zic.c" to correct performance of the "-s" option, and a new file "usno1997". --ado

1 0

Re: Israel Daylight Time
by Dave Skinner March 6, 1997

March 6, 1997

Regarding time settings in the state of Indiana, I do not know about the stories in the email to which I am now responding. Nevertheless, I grew up in Indianapolis, and I do remember that the first week or so of first grade was spent with the schools on one time-of-day and everyone's homes on a time-o-day that differed by an hour. This would have been in approximately September of 1959 (if I have redetermined the year of my 1st grade tour of duty correctly). Dave Skinner dave(a)jpl.nasa.gov

1 0

Israel Daylight Time
by Chris Carrier March 6, 1997

March 6, 1997

Ephraim Silverberg > INTERNET:ephraim@cs.huji.ac.il wrote: >Yesterday, the Knesset (Israeli parliament) passed a law changing the >daylight savings changeover times for 1997 (a mere ten days from when the >old times were to take effect). >An article from the English-language Jerusalem Post of late January explains >the rational for the change and can be found in: > ftp://ftp.huji.ac.il/users/ephraim/tz/timezone97.ps.gz >Please note that the starting time mentioned in the English-language article >is NOT the time that was finally decided upon by the Knesset. Could you please post the article here? Not all of us have Web access, sadly. >According to the Office of the Secretary General of the Ministry of >Interior, there is NO set rule for Daylight-Savings/Standard time changes. >Each year they decide anew what havoc to wreak on the country. However, >there is a "supposed" set of rules which is subject to change depending >on the party the Minister of Interior, the size of the coalition >government, the phase of the moon and the direction of the wind... Sounds like Indiana in the good old days before the Uniform Time Act where each county had its own time, each city within that county could secede from that, and where a 35-mile stretch of road had seven different sets of rules. I heard an apocrphyal story from Indiana at that time that a city council met on a Saturday evening and decided to cancel DST which was to go into effect at 2 a.m. that night (Sunday morning). The police and fire departments went around all over town late that evening and early next morning broadcasting the change on their bullhorns. Although the 1999-2009 dates do bounce around the Gregorian calendar quite a bit, in the Jewish calendar they are quite consistent: DST begins on the fourth Sunday in Nisan and ends on the first Sunday after Elul 20. (Ran the dates through a program of mine that takes Civil dates and translates them into a number of other calendars, including the Jewish).

1 0

tzdata1997c.tar.gz
by ado March 4, 1997

March 4, 1997

The file http://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzdata1997c.tar.gz is now available; it incorporates the recently circulated changes in Israel. I'm at work on the "zic -s" challenge. The cleanest way to deal with it seems to be to ignore the "-s" flag when running through the rules and zones, then eliminating "early" transition times when writing out the zone file; doing this provides a way of figuring out what time type should be in effect at the earliest instant to be represented in the file. Substantial regression work will be needed, so stay tuned. --ado

1 0

Changes in Israel's 1997 Daylight Savings Rules (CORRECTION!)
by Ephraim Silverberg March 4, 1997

March 4, 1997

> An article from the English-language Jerusalem Post of late January explains > the rational for the change and can be found in: > > ftp://ftp.huji.ac.il/users/ephraim/tz/timezone97.ps.gz > > Please note that the starting time mentioned in the English-language article > is NOT the time that was finally decided upon by the Knesset. The ZIC file I included in my previous message contained the proposed times (and comments) NOT the real times. Attached is the true ZIC file. 10**6 apologies. ___________________________________________________________________________ Ephraim Silverberg, CS System Group, Phone number: 972-2-6585521 Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. Fax number: 972-2-6585439 WWW: http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~ephraim E-mail: ephraim(a)cs.huji.ac.il --------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Zone Information Compiler (ZIC) File for the State of Israel (1989-2009) # According to the Office of the Secretary General of the Ministry of # Interior, there is NO set rule for Daylight-Savings/Standard time changes. # Each year they decide anew what havoc to wreak on the country. However, # there is a "supposed" set of rules which is subject to change depending # on the party the Minister of Interior, the size of the coalition # government, the phase of the moon and the direction of the wind. Hence, # changes may need to be made on a semi-annual basis. One thing is entrenched # in law, however: that there must be at least 150 days of daylight savings # time annually. Ever since 1993, the change to daylight savings time is # on a Thursday night from midnight IST to 1 a.m IDT. The change back to # standard time is on a Saturday night from midnight daylight savings time # to 11 p.m. standard time. 1996 is an exception to this rule where the # change back to standard time took place on Sunday night instead of Saturday # night to avoid conflicts with the Jewish New Year. # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule Zion 1989 only - Apr 30 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1989 only - Sep 3 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 1990 only - Mar 25 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1990 only - Aug 26 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 1991 only - Mar 24 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1991 only - Sep 1 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 1992 only - Mar 29 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1992 only - Sep 6 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 1993 only - Apr 2 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1993 only - Sep 5 0:00 0:00 S # The dates for 1994-1995 were obtained from Office of the Spokeswoman for the # Ministry of Interior, Jerusalem, Israel. The spokeswoman can be reached by # calling her office directly at 972-2-6701447 or 972-2-6701448. # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule Zion 1994 only - Apr 1 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1994 only - Aug 28 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 1995 only - Mar 31 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1995 only - Sep 3 0:00 0:00 S # The dates for 1996 were determined by the Minister of Interior of the # time, Mr. Haim Ramon. The official announcement regarding 1996-1998 # (with the dates for 1997 no longer being relevant) can be viewed at: # # ftp://ftp.huji.ac.il/pub/tz/announcements/1996-1998.ramon.ps.gz # # The dates for 1997 were altered by his successor, Rabbi Eli Suissa. # No changes have been made regarding 1998 as of yet. # # The official announcement for the year 1997 can be viewed at: # # ftp://ftp.huji.ac.il/pub/tz/announcements/1997.ps.gz # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule Zion 1996 only - Mar 15 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1996 only - Sep 16 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 1997 only - Mar 21 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1997 only - Sep 14 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 1998 only - Mar 20 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1998 only - Oct 18 0:00 0:00 S # These rules are probably wrong, but they are close approximations (usually # within a few weeks): # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule Zion 1999 only - Apr 11 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1999 only - Sep 5 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 2000 only - Apr 30 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 2000 only - Sep 24 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 2001 only - Apr 15 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 2001 only - Sep 9 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 2002 only - Apr 7 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 2002 only - Sep 1 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 2003 only - Apr 27 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 2003 only - Sep 21 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 2004 only - Apr 18 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 2004 only - Sep 12 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 2005 only - May 1 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 2005 only - Sep 25 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 2006 only - Apr 23 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 2006 only - Sep 17 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 2007 only - Apr 15 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 2007 only - Sep 9 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 2008 only - Apr 27 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 2008 only - Sep 21 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 2009 only - Apr 19 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 2009 only - Sep 13 0:00 0:00 S # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Israel 2:00 Zion I%sT

1 0

Changes in Israel's 1997 Daylight Savings Rules
by Ephraim Silverberg March 4, 1997

March 4, 1997

Yesterday, the Knesset (Israeli parliament) passed a law changing the daylight savings changeover times for 1997 (a mere ten days from when the old times were to take effect). Attached is the new Zic file for Israel with the corrected 1997 times. For now, the times for 1998 remain the same and there are no official times for 1999 and on. Please note that I have altered some of the comments as well. The official announcement (in Hebrew) is in the gzipped postscript file: ftp://ftp.huji.ac.il/pub/tz/announcements/1997.ps.gz An article from the English-language Jerusalem Post of late January explains the rational for the change and can be found in: ftp://ftp.huji.ac.il/users/ephraim/tz/timezone97.ps.gz Please note that the starting time mentioned in the English-language article is NOT the time that was finally decided upon by the Knesset. ___________________________________________________________________________ Ephraim Silverberg, CS System Group, Phone number: 972-2-6585521 Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. Fax number: 972-2-6585439 WWW: http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~ephraim E-mail: ephraim(a)cs.huji.ac.il --------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Zone Information Compiler (ZIC) File for the State of Israel (1989-2009) # According to the Office of the Secretary General of the Ministry of # Interior, there is NO set rule for Daylight-Savings/Standard time changes. # Each year they decide anew what havoc to wreak on the country. However, # there is a "supposed" set of rules which is subject to change depending # on the party the Minister of Interior, the size of the coalition # government, the phase of the moon and the direction of the wind. Hence, # changes may need to be made on a semi-annual basis. One thing is entrenched # in law, however: that there must be at least 150 days of daylight savings # time annually. The change to daylight savings time is from midnight IST # to 1 a.m IDT (day of week varies in different years). The change back to # standard time is on a Saturday night from midnight daylight savings time # to 11 p.m. standard time. 1996 is an exception to this rule where the # change back to standard time took place on Sunday night instead of Saturday # night to avoid conflicts with the Jewish New Year. # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule Zion 1989 only - Apr 30 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1989 only - Sep 3 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 1990 only - Mar 25 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1990 only - Aug 26 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 1991 only - Mar 24 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1991 only - Sep 1 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 1992 only - Mar 29 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1992 only - Sep 6 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 1993 only - Apr 2 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1993 only - Sep 5 0:00 0:00 S # The dates for 1994-1995 were obtained from Office of the Spokeswoman for the # Ministry of Interior, Jerusalem, Israel. The spokeswoman can be reached by # calling her office directly at 972-2-6701447 or 972-2-6701448. # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule Zion 1994 only - Apr 1 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1994 only - Aug 28 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 1995 only - Mar 31 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1995 only - Sep 3 0:00 0:00 S # The dates for 1996 were determined by the Minister of Interior of the # time, Haim Ramon. The dates for 1997 were altered by his successor, # Rabbi Eli Suissa. No changes have been made regarding 1998 as of yet. # # The official announcement for the years 1997 and 1998 can be viewed at: # # ftp://ftp.huji.ac.il/pub/tz/announcements/1997-1998.ps.gz # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule Zion 1996 only - Mar 15 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1996 only - Sep 16 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 1997 only - Mar 23 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1997 only - Sep 14 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 1998 only - Mar 20 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1998 only - Oct 18 0:00 0:00 S # These rules are probably wrong, but they are close approximations (usually # within a few weeks): # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule Zion 1999 only - Apr 11 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1999 only - Sep 5 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 2000 only - Apr 30 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 2000 only - Sep 24 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 2001 only - Apr 15 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 2001 only - Sep 9 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 2002 only - Apr 7 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 2002 only - Sep 1 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 2003 only - Apr 27 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 2003 only - Sep 21 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 2004 only - Apr 18 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 2004 only - Sep 12 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 2005 only - May 1 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 2005 only - Sep 25 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 2006 only - Apr 23 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 2006 only - Sep 17 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 2007 only - Apr 15 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 2007 only - Sep 9 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 2008 only - Apr 27 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 2008 only - Sep 21 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 2009 only - Apr 19 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 2009 only - Sep 13 0:00 0:00 S # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Israel 2:00 Zion I%sT

1 0

zic -s bug fixes for year/time extremes (found by code inspection)
by Paul Eggert March 3, 1997

March 3, 1997

I briefly looked for a fix for the problem that Dave Sparks reported today with zic.c, and decided that this will require more zic expertise than I have. However, I did find a couple of related bugs in zic.c by code inspection. First, there are a couple of places in the code that compare for equality to min_year, but values less than min_year are possible if -s is given, so these should be changed to compare for not greater than min_year. (While we're at it, we might as well make max_year symmetric.) Second, the setboundaries function sets min_year and max_year based on GMT, but these values are meant to be bounds for localtime years, so to be safe one must subtract 1 from the GMT min year and add 1 to the GMT max year. This is particularly important with the -s option, since the GMT min year is 1970 but the localtime min year might be 1969. Here is a proposed patch. This patch doesn't fix Sparks's bug, unfortunately. 1997-03-02 Paul Eggert <eggert(a)twinsun.com> * zic.c (setboundaries): Set min_year to be one less than GMT min_year, and max_year to be one greater than GMT max_year, in case local time and GMT disagree about years at time boundaries. (outzone, tadd): Don't assume that min_time and max_time are bounds on time_t values, since -s makes this assumption false. =================================================================== RCS file: RCS/zic.c,v retrieving revision 1997.2.1.1 retrieving revision 1997.2.1.2 diff -c -r1997.2.1.1 -r1997.2.1.2 *** zic.c 1997/02/28 00:22:22 1997.2.1.1 --- zic.c 1997/03/03 03:58:26 1997.2.1.2 *************** *** 647,654 **** max_time <<= TIME_T_BITS_IN_FILE - 1; --max_time; } ! min_year = TM_YEAR_BASE + gmtime(&min_time)->tm_year; ! max_year = TM_YEAR_BASE + gmtime(&max_time)->tm_year; } static int --- 647,654 ---- max_time <<= TIME_T_BITS_IN_FILE - 1; --max_time; } ! min_year = TM_YEAR_BASE + gmtime(&min_time)->tm_year - 1; ! max_year = TM_YEAR_BASE + gmtime(&max_time)->tm_year + 1; } static int *************** *** 1638,1645 **** if (!rp->r_todisstd) offset = oadd(offset, stdoff); jtime = rp->r_temp; ! if (jtime == min_time || ! jtime == max_time) continue; jtime = tadd(jtime, -offset); if (k < 0 || jtime < ktime) { --- 1638,1645 ---- if (!rp->r_todisstd) offset = oadd(offset, stdoff); jtime = rp->r_temp; ! if (jtime <= min_time || ! jtime >= max_time) continue; jtime = tadd(jtime, -offset); if (k < 0 || jtime < ktime) { *************** *** 1978,1986 **** { register time_t t; ! if (t1 == max_time && t2 > 0) return max_time; ! if (t1 == min_time && t2 < 0) return min_time; t = t1 + t2; if ((t2 > 0 && t <= t1) || (t2 < 0 && t >= t1)) { --- 1978,1986 ---- { register time_t t; ! if (t1 >= max_time && t2 > 0) return max_time; ! if (t1 <= min_time && t2 < 0) return min_time; t = t1 + t2; if ((t2 > 0 && t <= t1) || (t2 < 0 && t >= t1)) {

1 0

problem withzic 7.81 (1997a)
by Dave Sparks March 2, 1997

March 2, 1997

I recently downloaded tz{code,data}1997a.tar.gz in order to update our timezone database. Because we will not be using any dates earlier than 1970 I used zic -s to save space. All the timezone information was compiled, but when I tried to install the data into our database four timezones failed the sanity checks. I found that the compiled files for these timezones were each 44 bytes long and contained only zeros. The zones were: Australia/Darwin Africa/Accra Africa/Freetown Africa/Johannesburg (none of which have transitions after 1970). I looked at zic.c and made the following changes: 207% diff zic.c zic.OLD.c 3c3 < static char elsieid[] = "@(#)zic.c 7.81 +DaveS"; --- > static char elsieid[] = "@(#)zic.c 7.81"; 1572a1573 > usestart = i > 0 && (zp - 1)->z_untiltime > min_time; 1576d1576 < usestart = (timecnt == 0 && !useuntil) || (i > 0 && ((zp - 1)->z_untiltime > min_time)); which was partially successful (the Australian timezone was handled, but the African timezones needed modifications which wouldn't have been necessary if the fix had been correct: 208% diff africa africa.OLD 325,326c325 < 0:00 Ghana %s 1942 < 0:00 - WAT --- > 0:00 Ghana %s 561,562c560 < 0:00 SL WA%sT 1962 < 0:00 - WAT --- > 0:00 SL WA%sT 581,582c579 < 2:00 SA SA%sT 1944 < 2:00 - SAT --- > 2:00 SA SA%sT ). After looking more carefully at the timezone data, I realised that what the troublesome timezones had in common wasn't just that there were no transitions after 1970, but also that the last transition was by Rule. Since by then I had compiled data which we could use, I didn't look at zic.c again to try to work out a better fix. Incidentally, the assumption that the first Standard Time offset should be used for times before the first transition doesn't work well for Southern Hemisphere timezones: in many cases Summer Time will be in effect at the earliest time handled. (In case you were wondering why we need to import the timezone data into our own database: the application in question has to handle multiple timezones and is nor written in C or C++.) -- Dave Sparks, Staffordshire, England (posted from my private mailbox to avoid my employer being legally liable, since in English law a disclaimer would be ineffective.)

1 0

Re: ISO 8601 revision
by kuhn＠cs.purdue.edu March 1, 1997

March 1, 1997

Keld J|rn Simonsen wrote on 1997-03-01 22:50 UTC: [How do we get in contact with the ISO 8601 working group?] > I can try to ask the Danish Standards people. Great! > Have you got any suggestions for the "ugly T"? [Anyone interested in this discussion without a copy of ISO 8601, please download and print first <ftp://ftp.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/pub/doc/ISO/ISO8601.ps.Z> for reference.] I think, a space is the nicest solution as in 1997-03-01 22:50 and it should definitely be explicitely allowed. The current standard gave the author of <http://www.internic.net/internet-drafts/draft-newman-datetime-01.txt> the impression that the "ugly T" is the only comforming way of writing down both date and time, which is the only reason why the new proposed Internet standard date and time format (an ISO 8601 profile) has the "T". Only for applications, where a space is inconvenient (e.g, Unix command line options, where fields are separated by space), the hyphen as used in the corresponding ANSI standard and as shown in the "Chicago Manual of Style" is also quite nice: 1997-02-28-22:50 I do not see, where this overloading of the hyphen would cause problems with the requirement, that a parser must be able to distinguish all formats. If it causes problems with unambiguous parsability, then I wouldn't mind dropping some of the less useful notations from the ensemble. I also find the notation "--MM-DD" awfull for cases where I do not specify the year as it follows from context. It would be much nicer if notations like "-MM-DD" and "-DD" would be part of the collection, as this would allow to use these notations in sentences like "The conference will take place from 1997-08-28 to -31, and the tutorial sessions will run from -08-28 to -09-05." Instead these patterns are currently used for "-YY" and "-YY-MM". I think, using the leading hyphen to indicate the missing century digits was a bad idea. Please note that although ISO 8601 was intended as a standard for data respresentation, it is today quoted in standards for business letter typographical conventions (e.g., DIN 5008-1996). ISO 8601 currently lists numerous incomplete formats which I strongly doubt will ever be used anywhere (e.g., "---DD"). They are in applications like Unix cron, where you want to specify periodic events, much better represented by a more generic extended wildcard notation that allows to specify events like the last Sunday of every month, something ISO 8601 currently does not yet provide. Useful new notations might be 1997-100.5 (noon of the 100th day of 1997) 1997-02-3-7 (the third sunday of February 1997, especially useful with unspecified year or year/month as in *-3-7 or *-02-3-7) These are just a few first ideas for improvement. Once we get in contact with the working group and hear about their plans, we can start working on a detailed proposal. Markus -- Markus G. Kuhn, Computer Science grad student, Purdue University, Indiana, USA -- email: kuhn(a)cs.purdue.edu

1 0

tzcode1997b.tar.gz and tzdata1997b.tar.gz
by ado Feb. 27, 1997

Feb. 27, 1997

The files ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzcode1997b.tar.gz and ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzdata1997b.tar.gz are now available. The data file incorporates the 1997 leap second; the code file incorporates your correspondent's take on the zic/multiprocessor/directory-creation situation. --ado

1 0

Re: 8th EU Directive, French time
by peter＠memex.co.uk Feb. 27, 1997

Feb. 27, 1997

> Has the 8th EU Summer Time Directive come out? (starting in 1998) Not that I know of. The Transport Council (the group of national transport ministers who decide this) aren't due to meet for the first time this year until 11 March so I can't see it happening before then. I have just checked with my contact at the local EC Information Office and she hasn't heard anything either. They did apparently have an informal meeting on 31 Jan but I can't see anything in the midday press releases (at http://europa.eu.int/en/comm/spp/me/midday.html, with the relevent past ones at me970131.html, me970203.html, etc. (these people have a year 2000 problem looming :-) ). > Also, is France going to move from GMT+1 to GMT+2 this spring, and are they > still discussing remaining on the same time all year? (Perhaps permanent rule > change might be deferred until the end of the 7th Directive in October 1997.) I haven't seen any reports about this for months. I think it very unlikely that they will not follow the existing 7th directive. Any change, if it comes at all, is likely to be in 1998. > Has a date been set for the British General Election? No, but the options are closing in all the time. John Major has all but said it will be 1 May. I think the latest date is 5 May, but elections are always on a Thursday here so that is out. The other hot tip was 20 March but I think it is now too late to dissolve Parliament and meet that date. There is a by-election at Wirral South today, the result of which will no doubt confuse things even more. A bit of bonus news I saw today: there will be a leap second on 30 June 1997. See ftp://hpvlbi.obspm.fr/iers/bul/bulc/bulletinc.13 or http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/leap.html. Peter Ilieve peter(a)aldie.co.uk

2 1

8th EU Directive, French time
by Chris Carrier Feb. 27, 1997

Feb. 27, 1997

Some questions for our UK/European correspondents: Has the 8th EU Summer Time Directive come out? (starting in 1998) Also, is France going to move from GMT+1 to GMT+2 this spring, and are they still discussing remaining on the same time all year? (Perhaps permanent rule change might be deferred until the end of the 7th Directive in October 1997.) Has a date been set for the British General Election? Thank you. Chris Carrier

3 2

Interest in Timezone Information at JPL
by Dave Skinner Feb. 26, 1997

Feb. 26, 1997

I guess I should be added to at least the tz-requests mailing list and possibly the tz mailing list as well if it does NOT include the former email addresses by default. I represent the only person at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who has both an abiding interest in these matters as well as an immediate and on-going need for this information. For the record, I am coding a web-based capability to look up the latitude and longitude of any any geographic name that is being maintained in the http://www.nima.mil/gns/html/index.html web site, which is the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) GEOnet Names Server for non-US geographic names, and at the http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/gazetteer web site of the US Census Bureau, which is the name server for US geographic names. Once, I have the laititude and longitude I am currently planning to find out which of your timezones is the timezone associated with either the country or territory involved or, if the country in question has multiple timezones, to ascertain which of these timezones is the correct one based on the associated latitude and longitude. Finally, I plan to maintain and use your timezone information to find the best estimate of time-of-day at that location for a specified julian date. I say "best estimate" because many of our lookups will necessarily be for future events, and the timezone boundaries, their associated offsets from GMT, and especially their associated daylight savings time rules are obviously only as good as we know them today. The only problem that remains to be solved is the polygon information that is currently burried in the http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/95fact/802389h.gif file. To automatically lookup which timezone is associated with a given latitude and longitude requires having those polygons. So, I plan to see if the CIA Publications types would be willing to post such a file. If not, I may be forced to beat on the gif file. Anyway, it is really great to see that such a thorough effort to identify and maintain timezone information is occurring. Dave Skinner dave(a)kirdu.jpl.nasa.gov

1 0

"tzcode.tar.gz" and "tzdata.tar.gz" as links?
by guy＠netapp.com Feb. 11, 1997

Feb. 11, 1997

I sometimes suggest, in postings and mail messages, that people should pick up the Olson code and database; unfortunately, I have to put it as, e.g.: The [Arthur] Olson code, available, to those with FTP access, from "elsie.nci.nih.gov", in "pub/tzcode1997a.tar.gz" (unless, by the time you see this posting, Arthur's put out another version, in which case it'll be "1997b" or something such as that), ... (to quote a recent "comp.unix.solaris" posting). "libpcap" and "tcpdump", for example, handle this by having "libpcap.tar.Z" being a symlink to the current version of the "libpcap" library, and having "tcpdump.tar.Z" being a symlink to the current version of "tcpdump"; should something similar be done for the "tzcode" and "tzdata" "tar.gz" files?

1 0

your timezone program.
by Igor Grobman Feb. 5, 1997

Feb. 5, 1997

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hi, I am one of the developers of Debian Linux, a popular free Linux distribution. I was asked to fix bugs in this program that were filed by our users in the bug tracking system. The most serious bug is "the missing timezones". Apparently, your program included some timezones in an earlier version (I would guess around 1994) that were later dropped. The zones that users most ask about is something like US/Eastern, /US/Central, /US/Western, and similar things for other countries. I understand you probably don't want to release an official version with these zones defined, but what would be the best way for me to do it in order to fix it in the distribution? I looked at the source, and saw that you already use "Link" to link some of the obsolete zones. Would it be wise to link those old zones to the corresponding new timezone? Thanks. __ Proudly running Debian Linux! Linux vs. Windows is a no-Win situation.... Igor Grobman igor(a)vaca.net -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3 Charset: noconv iQBVAwUBMvkDmf6MRr9c8VylAQFtewIAnXYYWwxzoC9erTAgnUJrldkiNQKS//63 cwtOUOY1y1XMAPduspYjmezHMGq47UW1bRgowr+nl9IWzPHqfhU3gA== =iHGm -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

1 0

Re: zic on multi-processor systems
by Ulrich Drepper Feb. 3, 1997

Feb. 3, 1997

Ken Pizzini <ken(a)halcyon.com> writes: > if (!itsdir(name)) { > /* > ** It doesn't seem to exist, so we try to create it. > + ** Double check the return. Someone may be one > + ** step ahead of us. > */ > if (mkdir(name, 0755) != 0) { > + int sverr = errno; > + if (!itsdir(name)) { > const char *e = strerror(errno); You probably mean `sverr' here --------------------------^^^^^ BTW: I would change the if line to if (errno == EEXIST && !itsdir(name)) I've sent the patch as I got it and thought about it only later. Thanks, -- Uli ---------------. drepper(a)cygnus.com ,-. Rubensstrasse 5 Ulrich Drepper \ ,-------------------' \ 76149 Karlsruhe/Germany Cygnus Solutions `--' drepper(a)gnu.ai.mit.edu `------------------------

1 0

zic on multi-processor systems
by Ulrich Drepper Feb. 2, 1997

Feb. 2, 1997

Hi, the following patch will improve the usability of zic in environments with multiple processors (or make running several processes). We are in this situation in GNU libc. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ diff -u gnu/glibc/time/zic.c:1.1.1.4 gnu/glibc/time/zic.c:1.2 --- gnu/glibc/time/zic.c:1.1.1.4 Wed Jan 22 06:58:14 1997 +++ gnu/glibc/time/zic.c Sun Feb 2 12:02:29 1997 @@ -2126,8 +2126,11 @@ if (!itsdir(name)) { /* ** It doesn't seem to exist, so we try to create it. + ** Double check the return. Someone may be one + ** step ahead of us. */ - if (mkdir(name, 0755) != 0) { + if (mkdir(name, 0755) != 0 && !itsdir(name)) + { const char *e = strerror(errno); (void) fprintf(stderr, ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thanks, -- Uli ---------------. drepper(a)cygnus.com ,-. Rubensstrasse 5 Ulrich Drepper \ ,-------------------' \ 76149 Karlsruhe/Germany Cygnus Solutions `--' drepper(a)gnu.ai.mit.edu `------------------------

2 1

Re: draft-newman-datetime-01.txt
by Chris Newman Jan. 31, 1997

Jan. 31, 1997

I have a proposal for dealing with the "T" problem: How about at the end of section 5.2, I mention that it may be desirable to substitute a " " for the "T" when displaying times to users (of course the "T" would still be required for Internet protocol interchange). Does this sound like a reasonable compromise?

2 3

I-D ACTION:draft-newman-datetime-01.txt (fwd)
by Chris Newman Jan. 30, 1997

Jan. 30, 1997

Here's a new version of the time format document. The major change is adding a new format to represent future dates by specifying timezone name. Something like this seems to be needed by the IETF calendaring/scheduling working group to deal with future events and recurring events scheduled in local timezones. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 28 Jan 1997 09:40:43 -0500 From: Internet-Drafts(a)ietf.org To: IETF-Announce: ; Subject: I-D ACTION:draft-newman-datetime-01.txt A Revised Internet-Draft is available from the on-line Internet-Drafts directories. Title : Date and Time on the Internet Author(s) : C. Newman Filename : draft-newman-datetime-01.txt Pages : 23 Date : 01/27/1997 Date and time formats cause a lot of confusion and interoperability problems on the Internet. This document will address many of the problems encountered and make recommendations to improve consistancy and interoperability when representing and using date and time in Internet protocols. Internet-Drafts are available by anonymous FTP. Login with the username "anonymous" and a password of your e-mail address. After logging in, type "cd internet-drafts" and then "get draft-newman-datetime-01.txt". A URL for the Internet-Draft is: ftp://ds.internic.net/internet-drafts/draft-newman-datetime-01.txt Internet-Drafts directories are located at: o Africa: ftp.is.co.za o Europe: ftp.nordu.net ftp.nis.garr.it o Pacific Rim: munnari.oz.au o US East Coast: ds.internic.net o US West Coast: ftp.isi.edu Internet-Drafts are also available by mail. Send a message to: mailserv(a)ds.internic.net. In the body type: "FILE /internet-drafts/draft-newman-datetime-01.txt". NOTE: The mail server at ds.internic.net can return the document in MIME-encoded form by using the "mpack" utility. To use this feature, insert the command "ENCODING mime" before the "FILE" command. To decode the response(s), you will need "munpack" or a MIME-compliant mail reader. Different MIME-compliant mail readers exhibit different behavior, especially when dealing with "multipart" MIME messages (i.e., documents which have been split up into multiple messages), so check your local documentation on how to manipulate these messages. Below is the data which will enable a MIME compliant mail reader implementation to automatically retrieve the ASCII version of the Internet-Draft.

3 5

Alternative to A/B notation
by Chris Carrier Jan. 30, 1997

Jan. 30, 1997

Paul Eggert > INTERNET:eggert@twinsun.com wrote: >I agree with most of Markus Kuhn's comments and have the following >further comments and suggestions. >* I agree with Markus that ambiguous local times are a problem, but >the proposed A/B notation is not an adequate solution. That notation >works in the European context, where the rules are simple and uniform, >but it won't work well in general and it's painful to implement reliably. (major snip dealing with problems with A/B notation) >Here's a counterproposal that avoids the above problems. Instead of >having a special A/B notation for ambiguous local times, simply >have section 6.7 require the UTC offset. That is, instead of > 1996-10-27T02:30:00A Europe/Paris [+02:00] > 1996-10-27T02:30:00B Europe/Paris [+01:00] >(where the bracketed items are optional), require the UTC offset instead: > 1996-10-27T02:30:00 Europe/Paris +02:00 > 1996-10-27T02:30:00 Europe/Paris +01:00 >This counterproposal simplifies the notation and removes options, >which is a stated goal of the draft. I completely agree with Paul Eggert's suggestion. >* In practice the choice of time zone rule names may be controversial. >To encourage standardization and head off as much controversy as possible, >I'd like to echo Markus's suggestion to add (to the draft's section 6.3) >as much as possible from the advice to submitters of new time zone >rule names, taken from the `africa' file of the ><URL:ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/> registry. My advice here would be to avoid using time zone names/acronyms, period. After all EST means either -05:00, +10:00 or +11:00 depending on nationality and time of year. If, however, time zone acronyms and names have to be used, I would urge 'daylight time' instead of 'summer time' as both standard and summer begin with the same letter, creating further confusion; in Australia, EST can be either +10:00 or +11:00 as mentioned above. Chris Carrier

1 0