July 1997 - tz - lists.iana.org

Happy Leap Second!
by Chris Newman Nov. 24, 1997

Nov. 24, 1997

I hope everyone enjoys their extra second! This also serves as a test to see what really happens if there is a "60" for seconds in the date header. - Chris

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Re: ISO C strftime() extention for ISO 8601
by kuhn＠cs.purdue.edu Sept. 15, 1997

Sept. 15, 1997

"Clive D.W. Feather" wrote on 1997-06-30 13:14 UTC: > You may be interested to know that WG14 adopted last week working paper > N733, which adds the following items to the strftime() function: > > %f is replaced by the weekday as a decimal number (1-7), where > Monday is 1 (the ISO 8601 weekday number). > %F is equivalent to "%Y-%m-%d" (the ISO 8601 date format). > %T is equivalent to "%H:%M:%S" (the ISO 8601 time format). > %V is replaced by the ISO 8601 week number of the year (weeks > begin on a Monday, and week 1 is the week that includes both > January 4th and the first Thursday of the year) as a decimal > number (00-53). Thanks a lot for forwarding this interesting working paper. Please forward the following comments to the authors of N733 and whoever else might be interested. If possible, I would like to review the final text of the new strftime() definition (will the current draft be on the Web somewhere?). Comments on WG14 proposal N733 ------------------------------ Markus Kuhn <kuhn(a)cs.purdue.edu> -- 1997-06-30 (= 1997-W27-1) I appreciate this proposal and I have the following related comments. a) The valid range for %V numbers is 01-53. There is no week 00 in the ISO 8601 week numbering scheme. The week before a week 01 is either week 52 or week 53 of the previous year. b) %V alone is not sufficient to be able to use the ISO week numbering system. Each week is associated with a year, the year in which the majority of the days of this week fall, and this is not necessarily the year in which all days of the weeks fall. For instance: The week 1999-W52 goes from 1999-12-27 to 2000-01-02, in other words, the day 2000-01-02 has a week notation of the form 1999-W52-7. There should be another format descriptor for the year to which the current ISO week belongs, preferably both in 4-digit (%G) and 2-digit (%g) form. If you implement an algorithm for %V, you'll get the value of %G anyway as a by-product very easily, and therefore it should be made available to the strftime() user. c) Existing practice: The Olson tzcode package <ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/> contains a widely used strftime() implementation that supports already: %u ISO 8601 week day number (1 = Monday, 7=Sunday) %V ISO 8601 week number (01-53) %G ISO 8601 year of current week, 4-digits %g ISO 8601 year of current week, 2-digits Unless there is a good rationale for the characters suggested by N733, I would suggest to stick with %u instead of %f for the weekday number, and I hope that you will add %G and %g as used in the Olson package and Arnold Robbins' strftime version 3.0. Therefore, if I evaluate on 1977-01-02 the string %G-W%V-%u, I should get 1976-W53-7, and on 1975-12-29 I should get 1976-W01-1. Not directly related to N733, but affecting the same part of the standard, I have a number of other suggestions: d) The range for %S and tm_sec is currently defined to be 00-61 to provide for "as many as two leap seconds". This was based on a serious missunderstanding and there can never be two leap seconds per day as it becomes very obvious by reading ITU-R Recommendation TF.460-4 (I can send you a copy if you are interested). Since this 00-61 range is being widely quoted in other standards, this error should be fixed just to stop spreading this serious missconception of how leap seconds work. The correct range is 00-60. This is not an interoperability problem, but fixing this would make WG14 look like they know what they are doing, and it is therefore a good idea. e) I wonder whether %W is anywhere used and whether this field could be dropped to simplify implementation and memory cost. Countries that start the week with Monday normally use ISO 8601 week numbers (%V) and not the scheme defined by %W. I suspect %W was defined based on a missconception of how week numbers work in Europe. Unless anyone can come up with an example where %W is used or needed, I suggest to drop it as it looks completely useless to me (and please don't quote standards that just copied the %W from ISO C). f) In the definition of %y and %Y, the first two digits of a four digit year are refered to as the "century", which is problematic, since the years 1999 and 2000 belong to the 20th century, but 2001 belongs to the 21st century. Suggested better wording: "%y is replaced by the last two digits of the year as a decimal number (00-99)". Again, not a serious interoperability problem, but it makes WG14 look like they know what they are doing. g) mktime() is the inverse function of localtime(), but there exists no portable inverse function for gmtime() that converts a struct tm given in UTC into time_t. This is a serious problem, and the addition of a new function (e.g., mkgmtime() might be a possible name) should be considered seriously. It is not possible to invert gmtime() in a 100% portable way in an application program, and in practice, I have encountered awful hacks like binary searches over the time_t range to invert gmtime() in an as portable as possible way. See <http://www.ft.uni-erlangen.de/~mskuhn/iso-time.html> for further info. Markus -- Markus G. Kuhn, Computer Science grad student, Purdue University, Indiana, USA -- email: kuhn(a)cs.purdue.edu

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Time zone for the German all year antarctic station
by Wilhelm Mueller July 23, 1997

July 23, 1997

A friend of mine started working with the Alfred-Wegener-Institut, the German Institute for Polar and Ocean Research. So I aked him if he couldn't find out about the time used at the Georg-Neumayer-Station. Here's the answer, directly from the station leader (oheudeck is my friend's account at the AWI): > From: neumayer (Stationsleiter) > To: oheudeck > Subject: Mail from Neumayer Station Jul 23 1997 02:59 > Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 02:59:06 +0200 > > Sehr geehrter Herr Heudecker, > selbstverstaendlich werden alle Fragen sofort beantwortet. > Wir haben hier auf der Station ganzjaehrig, also ohne Sommerzeitregelungen, > die utc-Zeit. Wir sind im Sommer mit unserer Tageszeit zwei Stunden hinter > der bremerhavenener Ortszeit zurueck, im Winter nur eine Stunde. Dies entspricht > zwar nicht ganz den geographischen Gegebenheiten, spielt aber hier nicht so die > Rolle. [...] Translation (text in [] is from me): Dear Mr. Heudecker, of course all questions will be answered immediately. We have here at the station all over the year, that is, daylight saving time rules do not apply, UTC. In summer [that must refer to the Northern hemisphere] our time of day is two hours behind Bremerhaven [the city where the AWI administration and main facilities are located] local time, in winter just one. This does not correspond to geographic facts, but is not of much concern here. Yours, W. Müller -- "I don't object to sex before marriage, but two minutes before?!?" -- *************************************************** Der Senator für Bau, Verkehr und Stadtentwicklung Referat 43 (Dienststelle Schlachte 32) Wilhelm Müller Tel: +49-421-361-10629 Ansgaritorstraße 2 Fax: +49-421-361-2295 D-28195 Bremen, Germany Bits KeyID Fingerprint 2048 C2F0A2D1 B1452644 DEBB647F 94AA3DA9 01608E0A 1024 9548B531 AE9AD94C 978ABC3F 4B25B52B 1E752137 512 48B324ED 885C3131 DDF53740 DB7F9421 2A5431EE

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tzcode1997f.tar.gz and tadata1997g.tar.gz
by ado July 19, 1997

July 19, 1997

The files ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzcode1997f.tar.gz and ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzdata1997g.tar.gz are now available. These incorporate Paul Eggert's updates circulated on the time zone list earlier this week; there's also a small change to a function prototype; "Music" has been renamed "Arts.htm", htmlified, and augmented to include information on Around the World in Eighty Days. --ado

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proposed tz patches for Albania, Belgium, Congo, Hong Kong, and WWW
by Paul Eggert July 16, 1997

July 16, 1997

Here are some proposed patches to the tz database, notably to bring it up to date with recent political events: * Hong Kong is now part of China, and Zaire has been renamed Democratic Republic of Congo. These changes don't affect most programs; they just change commentary and tables accessed by tzselect. * Correct the DST changeover times in Albania from 1985 through 1990, as reported in the new edition of Shanks. (Expect more corrections in the future; I haven't had time to read Shanks's new edition past the A's yet.) * Correct several errors in the Belgian entries before 1944. Thanks to Pascal Delmoitie <pascal(a)belnet.be> for the new data. * Add Eric Ulevik <eau(a)ozemail.com.au>'s comments about NSW's plans to change clocks for the 2000 Olympics. * Rework WWW.htm to be more HTML-friendly. Add several sites, and update some obsolete references. Also, it'd be nice if WWW.htm could be available as a separate file; this would make it easier to give a URL to people interested in tz data. =================================================================== RCS file: RCS/WWW.htm,v retrieving revision 1997.5 retrieving revision 1997.5.1.3 diff -c -r1997.5 -r1997.5.1.3 *** WWW.htm 1997/05/03 22:52:34 1997.5 --- WWW.htm 1997/07/16 13:09:11 1997.5.1.3 *************** *** 2,109 **** <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE> ! Sources for Time Zone and Daylight Savings Data </TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> ! <PRE> ! # '@(#)WWW.htm 7.7' ! ! # From Paul Eggert <eggert(a)twinsun.com> (1997-03-28) ! # ! # The Web has several other sources for time zone and daylight savings data. ! # Here are some recent links that may be of interest. ! # ! # Date and Time Gateway ! # <A HREF="http://www.bsdi.com/date">http://www.bsdi.com/date</A> ! # A text-based source for tables of current time throughout the world. ! # Its point-and-click interface accesses a recent version of the tz data. ! # ! # WORLDTIME: interactive atlas, time info, public holidays ! # <A HREF="http://www.worldtime.com/">http://www.worldtime.com/</A> ! # Interactive world atlas with information on local time, sunrise and sunset, ! # and public holidays in several hundred cities around the world. ! # ! # Local Times Around the World ! # <A HREF="http://www.hilink.com.au/times/">http://www.hilink.com.au/times/</A> ! # This text-based system contains links to local time servers ! # throughout the world, and though the coverage is limited, ! # the live data provide a nice way to check one's tables. ! # ! # World Time Zones ! # <A HREF="http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/tzones.html">http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/tzones.html</A> ! # US Naval Observatory data, used as the source for the usno* files. ! # ! # Standard Time Zones of the World ! # <A HREF="http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/nsolo/rmap-gif/802483.gif">http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/nsolo/rmap-gif/802483.gif</A> [75 kB] ! # <A HREF="http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/nsolo/rmap-tif/802483.tif">http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/nsolo/rmap-tif/802483.tif</A> [1 MB] ! # <A HREF="http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/nsolo/rmap-pdf/802483.pdf">http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/nsolo/rmap-pdf/802483.pdf</A> [3 MB] ! # A static time zone map, available in multiple resolutions. ! # The quality is good, but the map does not indicate summer time, ! # and parts of the data are a few years out of date. ! # ! # Detailed World Clock information ! # <A HREF="http://www.stud.unit.no/USERBIN/steffent/timezones.pl">http://www.stud.unit.no/USERBIN/steffent/timezones.pl</A> ! # A map of cities and a list of UTC offsets and current DST rules in each city. ! # ! # The Time of Internet ! # <A HREF="http://pisolo.cstv.to.cnr.it/toi/uk/toi.html">http://pisolo.cstv.to.cnr.it/toi/uk/toi.html</A> ! # Good descriptions of Time Zones and daylight savings time, with diagrams. ! # The time zone map is out of date, however. ! # ! # A Few Facts Concerning RGO, GMT, and UT, by Richard B. Langley ! # <A HREF="http://community.bellcore.com/mbr/gmt-explained.html">http://community.bellcore.com/mbr/gmt-explained.html</A> ! # This answers questions like ``What is the difference between GMT and UTC?'' ! # ! # Daylight Saving Time -- Saving Time, Saving Energy ! # <A HREF="http://www.energy.ca.gov/energy/daylightsaving.html">http://www.energy.ca.gov/energy/daylightsaving.html</A> ! # A history of DST in the US. ! # ! # Yahoo! - Science:Weights and Measures:Measurements:Time:Daylight Savings Time ! # <A HREF="http://www.yahoo.com/Science/Weights_and_Measures/Measurements/Time/Dayligh…">http://www.yahoo.com/Science/Weights_and_Measures/Measurements/Time/Dayligh…</A> ! # The famous Internet indexing service Yahoo! collects its time zone info here. ! # ! # International Air Transport Association ! # <A HREF="http://www.iata.org/">http://www.iata.org/</A> ! # The source for the IATA SSIM, which gives current time zone rules for ! # all the airports served by commercial aviation. ! # ! ############################################################################### ! ! # From Manavendra Thakur <Manavendra_Thakur(a)NeXT.COM> (1995-11-06) ! # ! # To Paul's list of time zone information on the web, I would add the ! # following URL: ! # <A HREF="http://www.dhl.com/dhl/dhlinfo/1bb.html">http://www.dhl.com/dhl/dhlinfo/1bb.html</A> ! # or more simply: ! # <A HREF="http://www.dhl.com/">http://www.dhl.com/</A> ! # ! # This is run by DHL (the courier company), and it presents a list of the ! # countries served by that company. If you then click on a particular ! # country, here's an example of what you'll see (graphics stripped out): ! # ! # United Kingdom ! # ! # HOLIDAYS: Jan 1, 2, Apr 14, 17, May 1, 29, Aug 28, Dec 25, 26 ! # ! # INTERNATIONAL DIALING CODE: +44 ! # ! # CURRENT LOCAL TIME: 09:41 Monday 6 November 1995 ! # ! # I find this rather handy, and given that DHL covers 217 countries and ! # territories, it's pretty comprehensive coverage. ! # ! # (I have no idea what system DHL is using to calculate the local time, but ! # it's been accurate so far.) ! ! ############################################################################### ! ! ! # From Arthur David Olson <arthur_david_olson(a)nih.gov> (1996-01-04) ! # ! # A good source of information about ISO 8601 seems to be ! # <A HREF="http://www.ft.uni-erlangen.de/~mskuhn/iso-time.html">http://www.ft.uni-erlangen.de/~mskuhn/iso-time.html</A> ! # maintained by Markus Kuhn. ! </PRE> </BODY> </HTML> --- 2,109 ---- <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE> ! Sources for Time Zone and Daylight Saving Time Data </TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> ! <H1>Sources for Time Zone and Daylight Saving Time Data</H1> ! <P> ! <small> ! @(#)WWW.htm 7.7 ! </small> ! </P> ! <H2>Paul Eggert writes:</H2><P> ! The public-domain tz database contains code and data ! that represent the history of local time ! for many representative locations around the globe. ! It is updated periodically to reflect changes made by political bodies ! to UTC offsets and daylight-saving rules. ! This database (often called <samp>zoneinfo</samp>) ! is used by several implementations, ! including BSD, DJGPP, GNU/Linux, Irix, Solaris, and Unixware. ! In the tz database's ! <A HREF="ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/">FTP distribution</A>, ! the code is in the file <samp>tzcode<var>C</var>.tar.gz</samp>, ! where <samp><var>C</var></samp> is the code's version; ! similarly, the data are in <samp>tzdata<var>D</var>.tar.gz</samp>, ! where <samp><var>D</var></samp> is the data's version. ! <P> ! The Web has several other sources for time zone and daylight saving time data. ! Here are some recent links that may be of interest. ! <UL> ! <LI><A HREF="http://www.bsdi.com/date">Date and Time Gateway</A> ! is a text-based source for tables of current time throughout the world. ! Its point-and-click interface accesses a recent version of the tz data. ! <LI><A HREF="http://www.worldtime.com/">WORLDTIME: interactive atlas, ! time info, public holidays</A> ! contains information on local time, sunrise and sunset, ! and public holidays in several hundred cities around the world. ! <LI><A HREF="http://www.hilink.com.au/times/">Local Times Around the World</A> ! is a text-based system containing links to local time servers ! throughout the world; though the coverage is limited, ! the live data provide a nice way to check one's tables. ! <LI><A HREF="http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/tzones.html">World Time Zones</A> ! contains US Naval Observatory data, used as the source ! for the <samp>usno*</samp> files. ! <LI>The US Central Intelligence agency publishes a static ! Standard Time Zones of the World map in multiple resolutions. ! including ! <A HREF="http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/nsolo/rmap-gif/802483.gif">75 ! kB</A>, ! <A HREF="http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/nsolo/rmap-tif/802483.tif">1 ! MB</A>, and ! <A HREF="http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/nsolo/rmap-pdf/802483.pdf">3 ! MB</A> versions. ! The pictorial quality is good, but the map does not indicate summer time, ! and parts of the data are a few years out of date. ! <LI><A HREF="http://pisolo.cstv.to.cnr.it/toi/uk/toi.html">The ! Time of Internet</A> ! contains good descriptions of Time Zones and daylight saving time, ! with diagrams. ! The time zone map is out of date, however. ! <LI><A HREF="http://community.bellcore.com/mbr/gmt-explained.html">A Few Facts ! Concerning RGO, GMT, and UT, by Richard B. Langley</A> ! answers questions like ``What is the difference between GMT and UTC?'' ! <LI><A HREF="http://www.energy.ca.gov/energy/daylightsaving.html">Daylight ! Saving Time -- Saving Time, Saving Energy</A> ! is a history of DST in the US. ! <LI><A HREF="http://www.yahoo.com/Science/Weights_and_Measures/Measurements/Time/Dayligh…">Yahoo! - Science:Weights and Measures:Measurements:Time:Daylight Saving Time</A> ! is where the famous Internet indexing service Yahoo! collects its time zone ! info. ! <LI>The <A HREF="http://www.iata.org/">International Air Transport Association</A> ! publishes the IATA SSIM, which gives current time zone rules for ! all the airports served by commercial aviation. ! <LI><A HREF="http://hpiers.obspm.fr/webiers/results/bul/README.html"> ! Bulletins of IERS</A> contains official publications of the ! International Earth Rotation Service, the committee that decides ! when leap seconds occur. ! </UL> ! -- <A HREF="mailto:eggert@twinsun.com">eggert(a)twinsun.com</A> ! (1997-07-16) ! </P> ! <H2>Arthur David Olson writes:</H2><P> ! A good source of information about ISO 8601 seems to be ! <A HREF="http://www.ft.uni-erlangen.de/~mskuhn/iso-time.html">International ! Standard Date and Time Notation</A> ! maintained by Markus Kuhn. ! <P> ! -- <A HREF="mailto:arthur_david_olson@nih.gov">arthur_david_olson(a)nih.gov</A> ! (1996-01-04) ! </P> ! <H2>Manavendra Thakur writes:</H2><P> ! <A HREF="http://www.dhl.com/dhl/dhlinfo/1bb.html">DHL Information</A> ! is run by <A HREF="http://www.dhl.com/">DHL</A> ! (the courier company), and it presents a list of the ! countries served by that company.... ! Here's an example of what you'll see for the ! <A HREF="http://www.dhl.com/dhlinfo/country/unitedki.html">United Kingdom</A>. ! I find this rather handy, and given that DHL covers 217 countries and ! territories, it's pretty comprehensive coverage. ! (I have no idea what system DHL is using to calculate the local time, but ! it's been accurate so far.) ! <P> ! -- <A HREF="mailto:Manavendra_Thakur@NeXT.COM">Manavendra_Thakur(a)NeXT.COM</A> ! (1995-11-06) ! </P> </BODY> </HTML> =================================================================== RCS file: RCS/africa,v retrieving revision 1997.5 retrieving revision 1997.5.1.1 diff -c -r1997.5 -r1997.5.1.1 *** africa 1997/03/29 17:48:49 1997.5 --- africa 1997/07/06 07:19:55 1997.5.1.1 *************** *** 218,224 **** Zone Indian/Comoro 2:53:04 - LMT 1911 Jul # Moroni, Gran Comoro 3:00 - EAT ! # Congo # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Africa/Brazzaville 1:01:08 - LMT 1912 1:00 - CAT --- 218,231 ---- Zone Indian/Comoro 2:53:04 - LMT 1911 Jul # Moroni, Gran Comoro 3:00 - EAT ! # Democratic Republic of Congo ! # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] ! Zone Africa/Kinshasa 1:01:12 - LMT 1897 Nov 9 ! 1:00 - CAT ! Zone Africa/Lubumbashi 1:49:52 - LMT 1897 Nov 9 ! 2:00 - SAT ! ! # Republic of the Congo # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Africa/Brazzaville 1:01:08 - LMT 1912 1:00 - CAT *************** *** 656,668 **** 2:45 - BEAT 1957 3:00 - EAT - # Zaire - # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] - Zone Africa/Kinshasa 1:01:12 - LMT 1897 Nov 9 - 1:00 - CAT - Zone Africa/Lubumbashi 1:49:52 - LMT 1897 Nov 9 - 2:00 - SAT - # Zambia # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Africa/Lusaka 1:53:08 - LMT 1903 Mar --- 663,668 ---- =================================================================== RCS file: RCS/asia,v retrieving revision 1997.5 retrieving revision 1997.5.1.1 diff -c -r1997.5 -r1997.5.1.1 *** asia 1997/03/29 17:48:50 1997.5 --- asia 1997/07/06 07:19:55 1997.5.1.1 *************** *** 214,241 **** 5:30 - KAST 1940 # Kashgar Time 5:00 - KAST 1980 May 8:00 PRC C%sT - - ############################################################################### - - # Republic of China - - # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S - Rule Taiwan 1945 1951 - May 1 0:00 1:00 D - Rule Taiwan 1945 1951 - Oct 1 0:00 0 S - Rule Taiwan 1952 only - Mar 1 0:00 1:00 D - Rule Taiwan 1952 1954 - Nov 1 0:00 0 S - Rule Taiwan 1953 1959 - Apr 1 0:00 1:00 D - Rule Taiwan 1955 1961 - Oct 1 0:00 0 S - Rule Taiwan 1960 1961 - Jun 1 0:00 1:00 D - Rule Taiwan 1974 1975 - Apr 1 0:00 1:00 D - Rule Taiwan 1974 1975 - Oct 1 0:00 0 S - Rule Taiwan 1980 only - Jun 30 0:00 1:00 D - Rule Taiwan 1980 only - Sep 30 0:00 0 S - # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] - Zone Asia/Taipei 8:06:00 - LMT 1896 - 8:00 Taiwan C%sT - - ############################################################################### # Hong Kong # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule HK 1946 only - Apr 20 3:30 1:00 S --- 214,219 ---- *************** *** 258,263 **** --- 236,262 ---- 8:00 HK HK%sT 1997 Jul 1 # return to China 8:00 PRC C%sT + + ############################################################################### + + # Republic of China + + # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S + Rule Taiwan 1945 1951 - May 1 0:00 1:00 D + Rule Taiwan 1945 1951 - Oct 1 0:00 0 S + Rule Taiwan 1952 only - Mar 1 0:00 1:00 D + Rule Taiwan 1952 1954 - Nov 1 0:00 0 S + Rule Taiwan 1953 1959 - Apr 1 0:00 1:00 D + Rule Taiwan 1955 1961 - Oct 1 0:00 0 S + Rule Taiwan 1960 1961 - Jun 1 0:00 1:00 D + Rule Taiwan 1974 1975 - Apr 1 0:00 1:00 D + Rule Taiwan 1974 1975 - Oct 1 0:00 0 S + Rule Taiwan 1980 only - Jun 30 0:00 1:00 D + Rule Taiwan 1980 only - Sep 30 0:00 0 S + # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] + Zone Asia/Taipei 8:06:00 - LMT 1896 + 8:00 Taiwan C%sT + # Macao # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule Macao 1961 1962 - Mar Sun>=16 3:30 1:00 S =================================================================== RCS file: RCS/australasia,v retrieving revision 1997.5 retrieving revision 1997.5.1.1 diff -c -r1997.5 -r1997.5.1.1 *** australasia 1997/03/29 17:48:50 1997.5 --- australasia 1997/07/06 07:19:55 1997.5.1.1 *************** *** 768,773 **** --- 768,779 ---- # Prem Bob Carr announced NSW will fall into line with other E states # and SA and continue daylight savings to the last Sun in Mar. + # From Eric Ulevik <eau(a)ozemail.com.au> (1997-06-12): + # The NSW state government in Australia is talking about bringing the start + # of daylight savings time forward in the year 2000 to cater for the Olympics. + # This is going to take some time to be negotiated, because the plan is to do + # this in multiple states due to soccer games (which are not just in Sydney). + # Yancowinna # From John Basser (1989-01-04): =================================================================== RCS file: RCS/europe,v retrieving revision 1997.6 retrieving revision 1997.6.1.1 diff -c -r1997.6 -r1997.6.1.1 *** europe 1997/05/03 22:52:28 1997.6 --- europe 1997/07/06 07:19:55 1997.6.1.1 *************** *** 829,835 **** Rule C-Eur 1917 1918 - Apr Mon>=15 2:00s 1:00 S Rule C-Eur 1917 1918 - Sep Mon>=15 2:00s 0 - Rule C-Eur 1940 only - Apr 1 2:00s 1:00 S - # Whitman says 1941 DST was only from Feb 25 to Oct 5; go with Shanks. Rule C-Eur 1942 only - Nov 2 2:00s 0 - Rule C-Eur 1943 only - Mar 29 2:00s 1:00 S Rule C-Eur 1943 only - Oct 4 2:00s 0 - --- 829,834 ---- *************** *** 938,949 **** Rule Albania 1983 only - Apr 18 0:00 1:00 S Rule Albania 1983 only - Oct 1 0:00 0 - Rule Albania 1984 only - Apr 1 0:00 1:00 S - Rule Albania 1984 only - Oct 1 0:00 0 - # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Europe/Tirane 1:19:20 - LMT 1914 1:00 - CET 1940 Jun 16 ! 1:00 Albania CE%sT 1985 Mar 31 1:00 ! 1:00 W-Eur CE%sT 1991 1:00 EU CE%sT # Andorra --- 937,947 ---- Rule Albania 1983 only - Apr 18 0:00 1:00 S Rule Albania 1983 only - Oct 1 0:00 0 - Rule Albania 1984 only - Apr 1 0:00 1:00 S # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Europe/Tirane 1:19:20 - LMT 1914 1:00 - CET 1940 Jun 16 ! # The following transition is from Shanks's 4th edition (1995). ! 1:00 Albania CE%sT 1984 Jul 1:00 EU CE%sT # Andorra *************** *** 984,1033 **** 2:00 Russia EE%sT # Belgium ! # Whitman and Shanks disagree; go with Shanks, usually. # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S ! # From Whitman: Rule Belgium 1919 only - Mar 1 23:00s 1:00 S ! Rule Belgium 1919 only - Oct 4 23:00s 0 - ! # Shanks gives 1920 Feb 14 23:00s; go with Whitman. ! Rule Belgium 1920 1921 - Mar 14 23:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1920 only - Oct 23 23:00s 0 - Rule Belgium 1921 only - Oct 25 23:00s 0 - Rule Belgium 1922 only - Mar 25 23:00s 1:00 S ! # Whitman gives 1927 Oct 1 2:00s and 1928 Oct 7 2:00s; go with Shanks. ! Rule Belgium 1922 1928 - Oct Sat>=1 23:00s 0 - Rule Belgium 1923 only - Apr 21 23:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1924 only - Mar 29 23:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1925 only - Apr 4 23:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1926 only - Apr 17 23:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1927 only - Apr 9 23:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1928 only - Apr 14 23:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1929 only - Apr 21 2:00s 1:00 S - Rule Belgium 1929 1938 - Oct Sun>=2 2:00s 0 - Rule Belgium 1930 only - Apr 13 2:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1931 only - Apr 19 2:00s 1:00 S ! Rule Belgium 1932 only - Apr 17 2:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1933 only - Mar 26 2:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1934 only - Apr 8 2:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1935 only - Mar 31 2:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1936 only - Apr 19 2:00s 1:00 S - # Whitman says 1937 Apr 18 2:00s; go with Shanks. Rule Belgium 1937 only - Apr 4 2:00s 1:00 S - # Whitman says 1938 Apr 10 2:00s; go with Shanks. Rule Belgium 1938 only - Mar 27 2:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1939 only - Apr 16 2:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1939 only - Nov 19 2:00s 0 - Rule Belgium 1945 only - Apr 2 2:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1945 only - Sep 16 2:00s 0 - Rule Belgium 1946 only - May 19 2:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1946 only - Oct 7 2:00s 0 - # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] ! Zone Europe/Brussels 0:17:20 - LMT 1880 ! 0:17:20 - BMT 1892 May 1 12:00 # Brussels MT ! 0:00 - WET 1914 Aug 4 ! 1:00 C-Eur CE%sT 1919 Mar 1 23:00 ! 0:00 Belgium WE%sT 1940 Feb 24 23:00 ! 1:00 C-Eur CE%sT 1945 Apr 2 2:00 1:00 Belgium CE%sT 1977 1:00 EU CE%sT --- 982,1043 ---- 2:00 Russia EE%sT # Belgium ! # ! # From Paul Eggert (1997-07-02): ! # Entries from 1918 through 1991 are taken from: ! # Annuaire de L'Observatoire Royal de Belgique, ! # Avenue Circulaire, 3, B-1180 BRUXELLES, CLVIIe annee, 1991 ! # (Imprimerie HAYEZ, s.p.r.l., Rue Fin, 4, 1080 BRUXELLES, MCMXC), ! # pp 8-9. ! # LMT before 1892 was 0:17:30, according to the official journal of Belgium: ! # Moniteur Belge, Samedi 30 Avril 1892, N.121. ! # Thanks to Pascal Delmoitie <pascal(a)belnet.be> for these references. ! # The 1918 rules are listed for completeness; they apply to unoccupied Belgium. ! # Assume Brussels switched to WET in 1918 when the armistice took effect. ! # # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S ! Rule Belgium 1918 only - Mar 9 0:00s 1:00 S ! Rule Belgium 1918 1919 - Oct Sat>=1 23:00s 0 - Rule Belgium 1919 only - Mar 1 23:00s 1:00 S ! Rule Belgium 1920 only - Feb 14 23:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1920 only - Oct 23 23:00s 0 - + Rule Belgium 1921 only - Mar 14 23:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1921 only - Oct 25 23:00s 0 - Rule Belgium 1922 only - Mar 25 23:00s 1:00 S ! Rule Belgium 1922 1927 - Oct Sat>=1 23:00s 0 - Rule Belgium 1923 only - Apr 21 23:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1924 only - Mar 29 23:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1925 only - Apr 4 23:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1926 only - Apr 17 23:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1927 only - Apr 9 23:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1928 only - Apr 14 23:00s 1:00 S + Rule Belgium 1928 1938 - Oct Sun>=2 2:00s 0 - Rule Belgium 1929 only - Apr 21 2:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1930 only - Apr 13 2:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1931 only - Apr 19 2:00s 1:00 S ! Rule Belgium 1932 only - Apr 3 2:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1933 only - Mar 26 2:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1934 only - Apr 8 2:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1935 only - Mar 31 2:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1936 only - Apr 19 2:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1937 only - Apr 4 2:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1938 only - Mar 27 2:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1939 only - Apr 16 2:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1939 only - Nov 19 2:00s 0 - + Rule Belgium 1940 only - Feb 25 2:00s 1:00 S + Rule Belgium 1944 only - Sep 17 2:00s 0 - Rule Belgium 1945 only - Apr 2 2:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1945 only - Sep 16 2:00s 0 - Rule Belgium 1946 only - May 19 2:00s 1:00 S Rule Belgium 1946 only - Oct 7 2:00s 0 - # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] ! Zone Europe/Brussels 0:17:30 - LMT 1880 ! 0:17:30 - BMT 1892 May 1 12:00 # Brussels MT ! 0:00 - WET 1914 Nov 8 ! 1:00 - CET 1916 May 1 0:00 ! 1:00 C-Eur CE%sT 1918 Nov 11 11:00u ! 0:00 Belgium WE%sT 1940 May 20 2:00s ! 1:00 C-Eur CE%sT 1944 Sep 3 1:00 Belgium CE%sT 1977 1:00 EU CE%sT =================================================================== RCS file: RCS/iso3166.tab,v retrieving revision 1.1 retrieving revision 1.2 diff -c -r1.1 -r1.2 *** iso3166.tab 1996/09/03 23:48:46 1.1 --- iso3166.tab 1997/07/06 07:19:55 1.2 *************** *** 51,58 **** BZ Belize CA Canada CC Cocos (Keeling) Islands CF Central African Rep. ! CG Congo CH Switzerland CI Cote d'Ivoire CK Cook Islands --- 51,59 ---- BZ Belize CA Canada CC Cocos (Keeling) Islands + CD Congo (Dem. Rep.) CF Central African Rep. ! CG Congo (Rep.) CH Switzerland CI Cote d'Ivoire CK Cook Islands *************** *** 103,109 **** GU Guam GW Guinea-Bissau GY Guyana - HK Hong Kong HM Heard Island & McDonald Islands HN Honduras HR Croatia --- 104,109 ---- *************** *** 250,254 **** YU Yugoslavia ZA South Africa ZM Zambia - ZR Zaire ZW Zimbabwe --- 250,253 ---- =================================================================== RCS file: RCS/zone.tab,v retrieving revision 1.2.1.2 retrieving revision 1.2.1.4 diff -c -r1.2.1.2 -r1.2.1.4 *** zone.tab 1997/02/27 21:11:39 1.2.1.2 --- zone.tab 1997/07/16 16:25:51 1.2.1.4 *************** *** 101,106 **** --- 101,108 ---- CA +6043-13503 America/Whitehorse Pacific Time - south Yukon CA +6404-13925 America/Dawson Pacific Time - north Yukon CC -1210+09655 Indian/Cocos + CD -0418+01518 Africa/Kinshasa west Dem. Rep. of Congo + CD -1140+02728 Africa/Lubumbashi east Dem. Rep. of Congo CF +0422+01835 Africa/Bangui CG -0416+01517 Africa/Brazzaville CH +4723+00832 Europe/Zurich *************** *** 111,116 **** --- 113,119 ---- CM +0403+00942 Africa/Douala CN +4545+12641 Asia/Harbin north Manchuria CN +3114+12128 Asia/Shanghai China coast + CN +2217+11409 Asia/Hong_Kong Hong Kong CN +2934+10635 Asia/Chungking China mountains CN +4348+08735 Asia/Urumqi Tibet & Xinjiang CN +3929+07559 Asia/Kashgar Eastern Turkestan *************** *** 167,173 **** GU +1328+14445 Pacific/Guam GW +1151-01535 Africa/Bissau GY +0648-05810 America/Guyana - HK +2217+11409 Asia/Hong_Kong HN +1406-08713 America/Tegucigalpa HR +4548+01558 Europe/Zagreb HT +1832-07220 America/Port-au-Prince --- 170,175 ---- *************** *** 366,371 **** YU +4450+02030 Europe/Belgrade ZA -2615+02800 Africa/Johannesburg ZM -1525+02817 Africa/Lusaka - ZR -0418+01518 Africa/Kinshasa west Zaire - ZR -1140+02728 Africa/Lubumbashi east Zaire ZW -1750+03103 Africa/Harare --- 368,371 ----

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ISO 8601 v2
by kuhn＠cs.purdue.edu July 14, 1997

July 14, 1997

I have just received a copy of the document ISO/TC 154/WG 8601/101 "Proposal for ISO 8601 - version 2", 1996-05-02, from the Nederlands Normalisatie-instituut (NNI). Here is a very brief summary of the suggested changes: - a new section explaining the difference between "time-point" and "period (time-interval)", as well as "duration". "This standard does not specify what entities should be considered time-points and what entities may be periods or time-intervals. The decision, whether for instance 'April 1985' specifies a time point or a time-interval is left to the users of the information (because this decision depends upon its use.)". - The units of time used and the zero-points of counting schemes are now explicitely defined: - second: as in ISO 31-1 - minute: time intervall of 60 seconds - hour: 60 minutes - day: 24 hours - week: 7 days - month: approx. 30 days - year: 12 consecutive months, considerd to approximate the time-interval required for one revolution of the earth around the sun "The Gregorian calendar uses a starting point which assigns the year number 1875 to the year in which the Convention du Metre was signed at Paris. All years numbered according to this convention have, by definition, one specific (calendar) year number. [...]" Ok, so definitely no Julian calendar, but still no word about years before 0001. The lengths of the 12 months are now listed, together with the day of year numers that every months covers in a leap or non-leap year. - ISO/TC 154 has received a number of suggestions to improve the Gregorian calendar in both the lengths of months as well as the location and occurance of leap days. "However, ISO/TC 154 does not feel qualified to propose a reorganization of the Gregorian calendar." (I guess the world has already enough problems with the year 2000, and considering the huge investment in almost unchangeable computer software, a calendar reforms today seems extremely unlikely.) - the ---D format has been removed. - the proposal explicitely does not address leap seconds, the allowed second range is still 00 to 59 :-( - the ugly T is still there, although France has critisised this separator and the whole idea of considering date and time and time zone to be separate fields. - There is a new annex C "temporal relationships", which defines 13 terms in order to represent the temporal relationship of an event with a time-period. This was copied from a CEN Medical Informatics working group proposal. (Make sure you use a monospaced font to display the following!) Reference time interval: ----------------> AT ----------------> BEFORE -------> AFTER -------> DURING -----> INCLUDES ----------------------------------------> CO-CONTINUES ---------------------------> CO-PRECEDES -----------------------------> CO-STARTS ----------> CO-ENDS -----------> WARNING: This was an incomplete summary of a 14 page document, which is only a first draft that is expected to be superceeded by a second draft in a few weeks. Markus -- Markus G. Kuhn, Computer Science grad student, Purdue University, Indiana, USA -- email: kuhn(a)cs.purdue.edu

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Another ISO 8601:1998 Brainstorm
by kuhn＠cs.purdue.edu July 12, 1997

July 12, 1997

While I am waiting to receive the 1996 ISO 8601 revision proposal, here one further idea: allow a 0 value to mean "not known" in all the date notations, i.e. in a fixed width format, 1997-07 could also be stored as 1997-07-00. I have seen this technique used in at least one database so far (DIN's PERINORM). A silly question from a non-native English speaker: what is the difference between "not known" and "not specified"? There are codes for both situations defined in ISO 5218 and I never understood, why. See <ftp://ftp.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/pub/doc/ISO/ISO-5218-summary> for the full text of this standard. What about 1492J-09-31 refering to a date in the Julian calendar and B0345J-02-13 refering to February 2, 345 B.C.E. in the Julian calendar? I guess, no matter what we do with negative years, lexical sorting and comparing will always be messed up. Markus -- Markus G. Kuhn, Computer Science grad student, Purdue University, Indiana, USA -- email: kuhn(a)cs.purdue.edu

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suggested improvements for C9x `New formats for strftime()' (N733)
by Paul Eggert July 8, 1997

July 8, 1997

You propose new conversion specifiers for strftime in C9x, the new C standard, in your document ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG14 N733 <http://www.gold.net/users/cdwf/c/wg14n733.txt> (1997-07-01). Here are a couple of quotes from that document, followed by some suggestions for improvements. %f is replaced by the weekday as a decimal number (1-7), where Monday is 1 (the ISO 8601 weekday number). Please change this from %f to %u, because %u is current practice. I believe %u was introduced several years ago in Arnold Robbins's public domain strftime, and it is now the standard in many strftime implementations, including the Arthur David Olson public domain strftime <ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/>, the GNU C library <ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/>, 4.4BSD (e.g. BSD/OS), Linux, and Solaris. %u is also required by POSIX.2's `date' command to have the same meaning (please see IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 section 4.15.4.1 page 241 line 2931); it would be odd for C9x to diverge unnecessarily from POSIX in this respect. %V is replaced by the ISO 8601 week number of the year %V does not suffice to support ISO 8601 week-oriented dates, because the ISO 8601 week's year may not be the same as the current year. For example, using ISO 8601 week notation, `1997-W01-2' denotes 1996-12-31 (as the first ISO week of 1997 begins on 1996-12-30). Similarly, `1998-W53-5' denotes 1999-01-01. If only %V is available, there's no easy way for a C program to output ISO-format dates like `1997-W01-2'. To work around this shortcoming, I propose that C9x add Robbins's %G and %g formats, as follows: %G is replaced by the year containing the ISO 8601 week %g is replaced by %G modulo 100 E.g. the format "%G-W%V-%u" outputs the ISO 8601 full week-oriented date, and the format "%gW%V%u" outputs the ISO 8601 format containing the week-oriented date without century or punctuation. %G and %g were introduced more recently by Robbins, and they are also current practice, though not as widespread as %u: they are supported by the Robbins and Olson public-domain implementations, the GNU C library, and Linux.

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ISO 8601:1986 revision has started!
by kuhn＠cs.purdue.edu July 7, 1997

July 7, 1997

I just got an interesting reply from Mr. Louis Visser <Louis.Visser(a)nni.nl> on my question whether there is any work going on to revise ISO 8601 soon: ISO TC 154 decided in 1996 to revise ISO 8601. Four member bodies responded to the calls for participation in the WG preparing the revision: Sweden, Austria, Yugoslavia and the Netherlands. I am coordinating the work of the WG. A first proposal for the revision has been prepared late 1996; a second proposal is expected in a month time. Please take your copy of ISO 8601 and think about what you would like to see changed in the next revision of ISO 8601. Some topics I could think of that might be addressed in a revision are: - the "ugly T" (allow a space alternatively) - profiles for easy reference in other standards (which ones?) - BNF syntax description - replace many of the ---DD style notations by shorter ones - allow second 60 (leap second) - decimal fraction of a day (1997-100.5 is noon) - third sunday of February 1997 as 1997-02-3-7 ??? - years < 0001 and > 9999 (suggestions?) - add (modified) julian date notation - calendar indicator? - time zone rule descriptors? - sliding window interpretation of YY (Y2K)? - ... [I don't think each of them is a good idea, this list is just intended as a brain storming trigger to keep you thinking about alternatives.] May be, I'll start a Web page collecting ideas for improving ISO 8601. I hope, I can organize a copy of the existing revision proposal and make it somehow available online. I'd love to hear about any suggestions that you might have! Markus -- Markus G. Kuhn, Computer Science grad student, Purdue University, Indiana, USA -- email: kuhn(a)cs.purdue.edu

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