April 1996 - tz - lists.iana.org

Time Zone Request [forwarded with permission]
by ado April 24, 1996

April 24, 1996

I've forwarded the attached request with permission of the originator; replies can go to Ron or to the list as appropriate. --ado > ...Do you have any idea where I can find a tutorial regarding time > zones that includes a discussion of the international date line? Any > help will be greatly appreciated. Many thanks, Ron > > Ron Schodt > schodtr(a)infomail.infonet

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/usr/share/lib/zoneinfo/europe
by allane＠parallax.co.uk April 23, 1996

April 23, 1996

Hi, The europe file as distributed by Sun Microsystems has, as far as I can tell, a small bug in the Europe/London zone. My diff is included below. At least the Sun seems to need the one hour offset in the RULES part instead of the GMTOFF. I have a small test program that shows the problem; if you are interested let me know. the problem only affects dates in the 1968-1971 period. Cheers, --- Allan ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Allan Engelhardt Consultant Parallax Solutions Ltd Stonecourt Siskin Drive Coventry CV3 4FJ Tel: [+44] (0)1203 514400 Fax: [+44] (0)1203 514401 E-Mail: Allan.Engelhardt(a)parallax.co.uk --- [% diff -c europe /usr/share/lib/zoneinfo/europe] --- *** europe Tue Apr 23 16:03:54 1996 --- /usr/share/lib/zoneinfo/europe Sat Jul 16 05:47:47 1994 *************** *** 661,667 **** # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Europe/London -0:00:37 - LMT 1847 Sep 22 0:00 GB-Eire %s 1968 Feb 18 2:00 ! 0:00 1:00 BST 1971 Oct 31 2:00 # Fixed -AE- 0:00 GB-Eire %s Zone Europe/Belfast -0:23:40 - LMT 1880 Aug 2 -0:25:21 - DMT 1916 May 21 2:00 # Dublin MT --- 661,667 ---- # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Europe/London -0:00:37 - LMT 1847 Sep 22 0:00 GB-Eire %s 1968 Feb 18 2:00 ! 1:00 - BST 1971 Oct 31 2:00 0:00 GB-Eire %s Zone Europe/Belfast -0:23:40 - LMT 1880 Aug 2 -0:25:21 - DMT 1916 May 21 2:00 # Dublin MT

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Krasnoyarsk timezone?
by Andrey V. Glukhov April 23, 1996

April 23, 1996

Dear sirs, I work with the zoneinfo format, supported by Linux and FreeBSD for two years, and I was sorrowed when I did not find Krasnoyarsk timezone in the latest release FreeBSD, where are mach more timezones. Are you support the zoneinfo package? Can you add the record below into the timezone database? # Krasnoyarsk # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/ Rule Krasnoyarsk 1970 max - Mar lastSun 2:00 1:00 D Rule Krasnoyarsk 1970 max - Sep lastSun 2:00 0 K # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES/SAVE FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Krasnoyarsk 7:00 Krasnoyarsk KRS%s I understand that Krasnoyarsk timezone is equal to registered Tomsk timezone now. Do the registration of Tomsk timezone hinder to registrate Krasnoyarsk timezone? Sincerely yours Andrey Glukhov

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DST in EU, ex-USSR, Mongolia & software
by Chris Carrier April 21, 1996

April 21, 1996

I would like to ask a question about EU daylight time: since the directive defining the 'summer-time period' is for a limited number of years, when does the directive expire? Also, does anyone know what dates Russia and the rest of the CIS will be observing daylight time on this year? The World Almanac gave March-September, changing on the 4th Monday but I was thinking that Monday was probably in error and that I remember they were using EU dates in the mid-80s (source: English translation of PRAVDA) so they might be keeping DST until the end of October this year as well. About Mongolia. I just called the AT&T international operator and got a time of GMT+9 for Ulan Bator, and then asked if this time was valid throughout Mongolia and got an affirmative response. I presume GMT+9 means GMT+8 with DST, probably on whatever dates Russia is using. (I also have seen time maps with Mongolia in either one zone or split into three. I presume that both have been true at various times in their history.) Mongolia came up recently in sci.astro; there is a group going there for a total solar eclipse next month. About time changes being automatically built into software, VCRs, etc... I regard this as a very BAD idea, because DST rules change. (Thinking of many a system in the EU that is going to change back at the end of September and can't be programmed for the new directive...) Also there are places that don't use DST such as Arizona or the EST part of Indiana and groups and individuals who deliberately do not use local civil time.

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Re: Comments on the EC summer time directive and a change request
by Dik.Winter＠cwi.nl April 20, 1996

April 20, 1996

> Proposals for the eighth directive were supposed to have been produced > by the Commission by 1 Jan 96. They have not yet appeared (I asked just > before Easter). As this 1 Jan 96 date was specified in the 7th directive > this also shows that the Commission can break the hard and fast laws > as it wishes. That is always the case with politicians, however they will create a new directive in time (say before the end of this year), otherwise we would get a huge outcry from companies that depend on it (like railway companies for their timeteables; the worst to them did occur when Germany did not yet know half 1976 whether they would go to DST in 1977 or not, all international timetables for the winter period 1976/77, which in part covered the DST period, where doubled allowing for both cases). There is hard pressure to have the rules more than one year in advance. > Things are slightly confused by the formal title of the Commission > still seeming to be `The Commission of the European Communities', > which I think harks back to the very early days when there were several > `Communities'. I think these were the Coal, Iron & Steel Community, > EURATOM, and I think one more. Eh, I think no. The successor of (in Dutch) EGKS (Coal and Steel Community) was the EEG (Economic Community); both singular in Dutch. Later it became EG (they dropped Economic), still singular, and now EU. So I do not know why the English use a plural; but you are late-comers. But is the formal English title not: "The Commision of the European Community"? > Enough of this non-tzone digression. Can I have Rule EC -> Rule EU please? Indeed. About VCR's knowing about DST, it is a bad idea. They should get their time from the time as it is installed (and shown by the VCR). If possible they should self-adjust to the time as it is broadcast. dik -- dik t. winter, cwi, kruislaan 413, 1098 sj amsterdam, nederland, +31205924098 home: bovenover 215, 1025 jn amsterdam, nederland; http://www.cwi.nl/~dik/

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Comments on the EC summer time directive and a change request
by peter＠aldie.co.uk April 20, 1996

April 20, 1996

Chris Carrier asks when the current (7th) summer time directive expires. Answer: the last year it covers is 1997. In response to Monty Solomon's exerpts from RISKS, the rule of `start on last Sunday in March, end on last Sunday in October' is specified in the directive, so it is more than just a de facto standard. Dik T. Winter is correct, the directive is a hard and fast law in the EU. However, remember that you are dealing with politicians here. If they feel like changing the hard and fast laws, they will, and the current 7th directive is living proof, with its change from September to October. Proposals for the eighth directive were supposed to have been produced by the Commission by 1 Jan 96. They have not yet appeared (I asked just before Easter). As this 1 Jan 96 date was specified in the 7th directive this also shows that the Commission can break the hard and fast laws as it wishes. Finally, I would like to request a change in the Europe file, changing the name of the Rule for the EU countries from EC to EU. This European entity has been called various things in English over the years, Common Market, European Economic Community (EEC), European Community (EC); but it is now almost universally referred to as the European Union. This trend will undoubtedy continue as more countries join. Things are slightly confused by the formal title of the Commission still seeming to be `The Commission of the European Communities', which I think harks back to the very early days when there were several `Communities'. I think these were the Coal, Iron & Steel Community, EURATOM, and I think one more. The Commission seem to be renaming themselves, at least on recent blurb I get from them, as the European Commission. This will allow them to steal the abbreviation EC for themselves now that the whole thing is called EU. We will then still get EC Directives, coming from the Commission. Enough of this non-tzone digression. Can I have Rule EC -> Rule EU please? Peter Ilieve peter(a)aldie.co.uk

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Daylight Savings
by Monty Solomon April 19, 1996

April 19, 1996

FYI. Several excerpts from RISKS DIGEST 18.02, 18.03, 18.04, 18.05 ... ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Apr 1996 13:31:38 -0400 From: Matt Welsh <mdw(a)CS.Cornell.EDU> Subject: De facto Daylight Savings At http://www.timing.se/Daylight.html there is a brief discussion of the rules for Daylight Savings Time changeovers for central Europe and the UK. At the end of the page it says: > NOTE: From autumn 1996 the rule of changing from standard time to > daylight time is changed. The new rule is valid for central Europe > including the UK is: > > Standard time to Daylight Saving LAST SUNDAY OF MARCH > Daylight Saving to Standard time LAST SUNDAY OF OCTOBER > > The rule is a "de facto standard," not a law. > > The switching occurs at 01:00 UTC for central Europe (Stockholm Paris etc.) > Local time that is at 02:00 STD to DST and 03:00 DST to STD. > (STD = Standard time, DST = Daylight Saving Time or Summer Time.) > > Note: The legal switching is steered by laws that state dates for a couple > of years. When a period ends a new law is issued that gives the dates for > the next years. > > The Laws do not state any general rule. Only dates for a couple years > each time. The "de facto rule" works, but there is no warranty it will > work forever! With all of our scrambling about to deal with the Year 2000 problem, shouldn't we be just as concerned with this inconsistency that arises yearly (especially if there are no 'hard and fast' laws/standards to dictate DST changeovers)? M. Welsh, mdw(a)cs.cornell.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Apr 1996 11:31:07 -0600 (MDT) From: wampler(a)cs.unm.edu Subject: Daylight Savings Time problem I was hit by a daylight savings time problem Monday, the day after the time changed here. My machine is running four different operating systems: Windows 95, Windows NT, OS/2, and Linux. Since I'd doing cross platform development, I usually boot at least two different OS's a day. Monday, I booted Windows 95 first. At startup, I was greeted by a polite messages asking if the time should be changed to DST. Fine. Time changed and correct. Later in the day, after booting both NT and Linux, I noticed the time was yet another hour ahead. Either NT or Linux (and I suspect NT, but can't confirm that) had also, but invisibly, changed to DST. After some thought, and a class discussion in the software engineering class I teach, I've concluded this is not an easy problem to solve. In this case, there were two basic contributing factors I can figure out. First, PCs keep the internal clock in local time. Not a good idea -- it should be Universal Time -- but reality. The problem is then that NT or Linux made the assumption it was the only OS on the machine, and was free to update the time. Unlike Win95, which could be polite about the change because it is normally a single user system, NT and Linux both could reasonably assume they don't normally get shut down each evening, and thus the silent time update (I'm guessing). It would be unreasonable to expect confirmation from an operator. In this case, however, the time update did come at boot time. It seems to me a better update policy for NT/Linux would be to silently update the time if the change happened while running, and require a confirmation if it happens at boot time. Not perfect, but better. I tried OS/2, also, and it just ignored the time change. Bruce E. Wampler, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of New Mexico wampler(a)cs.unm.edu http://www.cs.unm.edu/~wampler ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 22:08:02 GMT From: Dik.Winter(a)cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter) Subject: Re: De facto Daylight Savings > At http://www.timing.se/Daylight.html there is a brief discussion > of the rules for Daylight Savings Time changeovers for central Europe > and the UK. At the end of the page it says: ... > > The rule is a "de facto standard," not a law. ... > With all of our scrambling about to deal with the Year 2000 problem, > shouldn't we be just as concerned with this inconsistency that arises > yearly (especially if there are no 'hard and fast' laws/standards to dictate > DST changeovers)? But there *are* 'hard and fast' laws that dictate DST changeovers. There is however *not* a law that dictates this far into the future but only for a few coming years. (Note that these laws, EU directives, are made up far in advance. It was already known a few years ago that the EU would change the rule this year.) It appears not to be very advisable to cast changeover dates in concrete. It is up to the software to deal with this flexibility and Andrew Olson's timezone package deals very well with it. (And some software does not handle it well at all. Most annoying was a bug in SGI's software which thought the last Sunday in September last year was October 1, and so switched out of DST one week late. Exactly the same bug stroke again this time when the software thought that the last Sunday of March was March 24, and so switched into DST one week early. Surprising that the bug was not fixed in that half year.) dik t. winter, cwi, kruislaan 413, 1098 sj amsterdam, nederland, +31205924098 home: bovenover 215, 1025 jn amsterdam, nederland; http://www.cwi.nl/~dik/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Apr 1996 18:45:14 -0400 From: "John F. Whitehead" <jfw(a)wral-tv.com> Subject: Re: Daylight Savings Time problem: Netscape 2.* reload There has been another side effect of the daylight savings time change, with the Netscape Navigator browser: caches have incorrect times and no longer work properly for documents that change frequently. Netscape Navigator version 2.x for Windows and Unix platforms is an hour off in its cache-file handling. If a user tries to reload a page that has changed within the last hour, the browser still thinks its cached version is more up to date and won't retrieve the new version. (After an hour, this is no longer an issue.) This has been a problem with news organizations (such as ours), chat/bulletin boards, and java applets that need to be updated frequently. Netscape's "force reload" procedure (shift key + reload button) doesn't always work either: the only solution is to flush the memory and disk caches before a reload, or to set them to size zero. Netscape has made no official statement, but apparently has said the bug won't be fixed in the next version of the software (2.1) but in the one after that (3.0 (Atlas)). The Macintosh version does not suffer from this bug, nor do versions 1.x, or browsers from other manufacturer. The risk (aside from the obvious one related to programming for time changes) is trusting that a market-leader software company is going to have bug-free software. John F. Whitehead OnLine Technical Director 919-821-8605 jfw(a)wral-tv.com http://www.wral-tv.com [This problem was also reported by CurtAkin(a)aol.com and Prentiss Riddle <riddle(a)is.rice.edu> -- next message. PGN] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 09:14:54 -0500 (CDT) From: Prentiss Riddle <riddle(a)is.rice.edu> Subject: Another Daylight Saving Time problem: Netscape 2.* reload [...] One workaround is said to be to run Netscape in California time, e.g. under Unix: setenv TZ PDT ; netscape & Defying the RISKS tradition of intoning that "the risks are obvious", one could draw the following lessons: -- Time-dependent functions should be tested using multiple time zones and both DST- and non-DST dates. -- In networked applications, local time issues can cause more than just local problems. Prentiss Riddle <riddle(a)rice.edu> http://is.rice.edu/~riddle RiceInfo Administrator, Rice University ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Apr 1996 16:20:49 -0400 (EDT) From: beaton1(a)server.uwindsor.ca (Lorne Beaton) Subject: Another Daylight Savings Time risk: billing My university recently (ca. January 1, after a testing period of about a month) instituted a new dialup service, for which students and faculty are charged 75 cents per hour peak and 60 cents off-peak. A couple of days ago I logged on and saw something like the following in my logon message: > Charges THIS month to date 500 minutes for a cost of $ 49.59 > Charges LAST month (total) 2089 minutes for a cost of $ 24.76 (Note that these aren't the exact figures, but you get the idea.) Needless to say I was consternated. After complaining to the admins, I learned that the billing discrepancy arose from the change to Daylight time. Night owl that I am, I happened to be logged in at the exact moment that 2:00 a.m. EST became 3:00 a.m. EDT. Needless to say, this was the first time they had dealt with the changeover. Happily, the problem has since been fixed, but the risk is self-evident. Lorne Beaton <beaton1(a)server.uwindsor.ca> ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 10:23:50 -0700 From: phaedrus(a)halcyon.com (Mark Phaedrus) Subject: Re: Daylight Savings Time problem: Netscape 2.* (Whitehead, R 18 04) Actually, Netscape has publically announced that "We are preparing to release Netscape Navigator 2.02 in the next two weeks to fix this problem." (Source: <URL:http://home.netscape.com/misc/DST_err.html>.) They also give one other, rather unsatisfactory workaround (besides clearing or zeroing your disk cache, or setting the time-zone variable correctly): set your machine's clock back an hour... [Also noted by Prentiss Riddle <riddle(a)is.rice.edu> and "J. David Stanton, Jr." <jstanton(a)coin.state.pa.us>. PGN] ------------------------------

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tzdata96f.tar.gz
by ado April 19, 1996

April 19, 1996

The file tzdata96f.tar.gz is now available for anonymous ftp from elsie.nci.nih.gov (165.112.73.1) in the ~ftp/pub directory: -rw-r--r-- 1 ado wheel 73553 Apr 19 15:12 tzdata96f.tar.gz The only changes are to the "northamerica" file; the time zone abbreviation for Denver is corrected to MST (and MDT), and the comments for Mexico have been updated. Changes to Bangalore, the People's Republic of China, and Chuuk/Truk may follow. --ado

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[colsen@usa.net: conf/1150: /usr/src/share/zoneinfo/north]
by Garrett Wollman April 19, 1996

April 19, 1996

This error is present in tzdata96e on elsie... -GAWollman ------- start of forwarded message (RFC 934 encapsulation) ------- Message-Id: <199604191457.IAA00442(a)mach5.compus.com> From: colsen(a)usa.net Sender: owner-bugs(a)freebsd.org To: FreeBSD-gnats-submit(a)freebsd.org Subject: conf/1150: /usr/src/share/zoneinfo/northamerica file for Denver is wrong Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 08:57:58 -0600 (MDT) >Number: 1150 >Category: conf >Synopsis: /usr/src/share/zoneinfo/northamerica file for Denver is wrong >Confidential: no >Severity: serious >Priority: medium >Responsible: freebsd-bugs >State: open >Class: sw-bug >Submitter-Id: current-users >Arrival-Date: Fri Apr 19 08:00:01 PDT 1996 >Last-Modified: >Originator: Christopher B. Olsen >Organization: COMPUS Services Corp. >Release: FreeBSD 2.2-CURRENT i386 >Environment: Tracking current. 32Mb, 166Mhz Pentium, 4Gb MICROP SCSI-2 Fast/Wide, BusLogic BT-956 >Description: The northamerica timezone file contains a bogus description for the Mountain time zone. >How-To-Repeat: link /etc/localtime -> /usr/share/zoneinfo/Denver. And check the time. you will get EDT or EST. >Fix: *** northamerica Fri Apr 19 09:42:41 1996 - --- northamerica.bak Fri Apr 19 09:42:41 1996 *************** *** 162,172 **** Rule Denver 1965 1966 - Oct lastSun 2:00 0 S # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone America/Denver -6:59:56 - LMT 1883 Nov 18 12:00 ! -7:00 US M%sT 1920 ! -7:00 Denver M%sT 1942 ! -7:00 US M%sT 1946 ! -7:00 Denver M%sT 1967 ! -7:00 US M%sT # ZONE-DESCR America Denver United_States Mountain time (except Arizona) # US Pacific time, represented by Los Angeles - --- 162,172 ---- Rule Denver 1965 1966 - Oct lastSun 2:00 0 S # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone America/Denver -6:59:56 - LMT 1883 Nov 18 12:00 ! -7:00 US E%sT 1920 ! -7:00 Denver E%sT 1942 ! -7:00 US E%sT 1946 ! -7:00 Denver E%sT 1967 ! -7:00 US E%sT # ZONE-DESCR America Denver United_States Mountain time (except Arizona) # US Pacific time, represented by Los Angeles >Audit-Trail: >Unformatted: ------- end -------

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2 questions about the list
by Chris Carrier April 16, 1996

April 16, 1996

I would like to ask a couple of questions about this list. About how many people are on it? Also, I see it is from nci.nih.gov. Exactly who runs it? NIH sounds like National Institute of Health, but why would they be running a time zone mailing list? (Sleep deprivation perhaps :) )

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