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proposed changes to tz for Israel, Lord Howe, web page, etc.
by Paul Eggert Feb. 22, 2000

Feb. 22, 2000

Yesterday's announcement of Israel's planned DST transitions for 2000/2002 (forwarded by Ephraim Silverberg to this list) prompted me to dust off some accumulated lower-priority changes to the tz database. The patch is enclosed below. Sorry, I still haven't had time to digest everybody's suggestions for Web or XML access to the tz database; clearly something should be done, but I haven't had time to think about it yet (much less do anything about it). Changes to data * Israel has announced the planned DST transitions for 2000 through 2002. (Thanks to Ephraim Silverberg for this info.) * Lord Howe Island's recent DST transitions use the same dates as New South Wales's. (Thanks to James Lonergan and Rives McDow for this info.) Changes to commentary only * Replace long discussion of UK legal history with pointer to Joseph Myers's nice new web page. * Add reference for Estonia's recent switch to UTC+2. (Thanks to Mart Oruaas for this info.) * Heard & McDonald are at UTC+5 with no DST (when they have visitors). * Ashmore and Cartier are like Australia/Perth. * Macquarie is like Australia/Hobart. (Thanks to Margaret Turner for this info.) * Fix a typo in Artigas's coordinates. (Thanks to Oscar van Vlijmen.) Changes to web pages * Reorganize tz-link.htm. Add subsection titles, pointers to other web sites mentioned recently, and freshen references. * Update HTML to comform to the new HTML 4.01 standard. * Add keywords and Dublin Core metadata to tz-link.htm, to help search engines find it. * Use the name `tz' for the database more uniformly. * Mention tz mailing list. =================================================================== RCS file: RCS/antarctica,v retrieving revision 2000.1 retrieving revision 2000.1.0.1 diff -pu -r2000.1 -r2000.1.0.1 --- antarctica 2000/01/18 14:21:17 2000.1 +++ antarctica 2000/02/17 23:20:20 2000.1.0.1 @@ -47,6 +47,10 @@ Rule ChileAQ 2000 max - Mar Sun>=9 0:00 # Australia - territories # Heard Island, McDonald Islands (uninhabited) # previously sealers and scientific personnel wintered +# <a href="http://www.dstc.qut.edu.au/DST/marg/daylight.html"> +# Margaret Turner reports +# </a> (1999-09-30) that they're UTC+5, with no DST; +# presumably this is when they have visitors. # # year-round bases # Casey, Bailey Peninsula, -6617+11032, since 1969 @@ -210,7 +214,7 @@ Rule NZAQ 1990 max - Mar Sun>=15 2:00s 0 # Rothera, Adelaide Island, -6734-6808, since 1976-12-01 # Uruguay - year round base -# Artigas, King George Island, -9621104-0585107 +# Artigas, King George Island, -621104-0585107 # USA - year-round bases # =================================================================== RCS file: RCS/asia,v retrieving revision 2000.1 retrieving revision 2000.1.0.1 diff -pu -r2000.1 -r2000.1.0.1 --- asia 2000/01/18 14:21:18 2000.1 +++ asia 2000/02/17 23:20:20 2000.1.0.1 @@ -526,7 +526,7 @@ Rule Zion 1988 only - Apr 9 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1988 only - Sep 3 0:00 0 S # From Ephraim Silverberg <ephraim(a)cs.huji.ac.il> -# (1997-03-04, 1998-03-16 and 1998-12-28): +# (1997-03-04, 1998-03-16, 1998-12-28, and 2000-01-17): # According to the Office of the Secretary General of the Ministry of # Interior, there is NO set rule for Daylight-Savings/Standard time changes. @@ -540,7 +540,11 @@ Rule Zion 1988 only - Sep 3 0:00 0 S # conflicts with the Jewish New Year. Starting in 1999, the change to # daylight savings time will still be on a Friday morning but from # 2 a.m. IST to 3 a.m. IDT; furthermore, the change back to standard time -# will now also be on a Friday morning from 2 a.m. IDT to 1 a.m. IST. +# will now also be on a Friday morning from 2 a.m. IDT to 1 a.m. IST for +# 1999 only. In the years from 2000 to 2002, the change back will be from +# 2 a.m. IDT to 1 a.m. IST the morning after the Jewish festival of +# Shmini Atzeret (i.e. the morning of the 23rd of Tishrei in the lunar +# Hebrew calendar). # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule Zion 1989 only - Apr 30 0:00 1:00 D @@ -588,18 +592,29 @@ Rule Zion 1998 only - Sep 6 0:00 0 S Rule Zion 1999 only - Apr 2 2:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1999 only - Sep 3 2:00 0 S -# Due to imminent elections in 1999, there are no dates for the year 2000 -# and beyond. There was a move to legislate the DST rules in Israel, but -# due to the government's fall, it most likely won't be brought to the Knesset -# for first reading before the elections and will probably be altered by the -# newly elected government. +# Minister of Interior, Natan Sharansky, has announced the dates for +# the years 2000-2002. However, sources inside the ministry have noted +# that the end date of 2000 and both dates of 2001-2002 should be regarded +# as tentative pending final approval. +# +# The official announcement for the years 2000-2001 can be viewed at: +# +# ftp://ftp.huji.ac.il/pub/tz/announcements/2000-2002.ps.gz + +# Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S +Rule Zion 2000 only - Apr 14 2:00 1:00 D +Rule Zion 2000 only - Oct 22 2:00 0 S +Rule Zion 2001 only - Apr 6 2:00 1:00 D +Rule Zion 2001 only - Oct 10 2:00 0 S +Rule Zion 2002 only - Mar 29 2:00 1:00 D +Rule Zion 2002 only - Sep 29 2:00 0 S -# From Paul Eggert (1999-01-30): -# Here are guesses for rules after 1999. +# From Paul Eggert (2000-01-17): +# Here are guesses for rules after 2002. # 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 2000 max - Apr Fri>=1 2:00 1:00 D -Rule Zion 2000 max - Sep Fri>=1 2:00 0 S +Rule Zion 2003 max - Mar Fri>=25 2:00 1:00 D +Rule Zion 2003 max - Oct 1 2:00 0 S # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Asia/Jerusalem 2:20:56 - LMT 1880 =================================================================== RCS file: RCS/australasia,v retrieving revision 2000.1 retrieving revision 2000.1.0.1 diff -pu -r2000.1 -r2000.1.0.1 --- australasia 2000/01/18 14:21:18 2000.1 +++ australasia 2000/02/17 23:20:20 2000.1.0.1 @@ -151,11 +151,13 @@ Zone Australia/Broken_Hill 9:25:48 - LMT Rule LH 1981 1984 - Oct lastSun 2:00s 1:00 - Rule LH 1982 1985 - Mar Sun>=1 2:00s 0 - Rule LH 1985 only - Oct lastSun 2:00s 0:30 - -Rule LH 1986 1991 - Mar Sun>=15 2:00s 0 - +Rule LH 1986 1989 - Mar Sun>=15 2:00s 0 - Rule LH 1986 only - Oct 19 2:00s 0:30 - -Rule LH 1987 max - Oct lastSun 2:00s 0:30 - -Rule LH 1992 1995 - Mar Sun>=1 2:00s 0 - +Rule LH 1987 1999 - Oct lastSun 2:00s 0:30 - +Rule LH 1990 1995 - Mar Sun>=1 2:00s 0 - Rule LH 1996 max - Mar lastSun 2:00s 0 - +Rule LH 2000 only - Aug lastSun 2:00s 0:30 - +Rule LH 2001 max - Oct lastSun 2:00s 0:30 - Zone Australia/Lord_Howe 10:36:20 - LMT 1895 Feb 10:00 - EST 1981 Mar 10:30 LH LHST @@ -164,7 +166,7 @@ Zone Australia/Lord_Howe 10:36:20 - LMT # # Ashmore Is, Cartier # no indigenous inhabitants; only seasonal caretakers -# no information; probably like Australia/Perth +# like Australia/Perth, says Turner # # Coral Sea Is # no indigenous inhabitants; only meteorologists @@ -173,10 +175,7 @@ Zone Australia/Lord_Howe 10:36:20 - LMT # Macquarie # permanent occupation (scientific station) since 1948; # sealing and penguin oil station operated 1888/1917 -# <a href="http://www.bom.gov.au/faq/faqgen.htm"> -# The Australian Bureau of Meteorology FAQ -# </a> (1999-09-27) writes that Macquarie Island follows Tasmanian practice -# irrespective of any local use of DST. This is unclear; ignore it for now. +# like Australia/Hobart, says Turner # Christmas # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] @@ -505,6 +504,10 @@ Zone Pacific/Wallis 12:15:20 - LMT 1901 # Australia +# <a href="http://www.dstc.qut.edu.au/DST/marg/daylight.html"> +# Australia's Daylight Saving Times +# </a>, by Margaret Turner, summarizes daylight saving issues in Australia. + # From John Mackin (1991-03-06): # We in Australia have _never_ referred to DST as `daylight' time. # It is called `summer' time. Now by a happy coincidence, `summer' @@ -843,11 +846,19 @@ Zone Pacific/Wallis 12:15:20 - LMT 1901 # Lord Howe Island is located off the New South Wales coast, and is half an # hour ahead of NSW time. -# From Paul Eggert (1995-12-19): -# For Lord Howe we use Shanks through 1991. -# Lord Howe is part of NSW, so we'll guess it has used the same transition -# times as NSW since 1991, even though Shanks writes that Lord Howe went -# with Victoria when NSW and Victoria disagreed in 1982. +# From James Lonergan, Secretary, Lord Howe Island Board (2000-01-27): +# Lord Howe Island summer time in 2000/2001 will commence on the same +# date as the rest of NSW (i.e. 2000-08-27). For your information the +# Lord Howe Island Board (controlling authority for the Island) is +# seeking the community's views on various options for summer time +# arrangements on the Island, e.g. advance clocks by 1 full hour +# instead of only 30 minutes. Dependant on the wishes of residents +# the Board may approach the NSW government to change the existing +# arrangements. The starting date for summer time on the Island will +# however always coincide with the rest of NSW. + +# From Paul Eggert (2000-01-31): +# For Lord Howe we use Shanks through 1989, and Lonergan thereafter. ############################################################################### =================================================================== RCS file: RCS/europe,v retrieving revision 1999.10 retrieving revision 1999.10.0.2 diff -pu -r1999.10 -r1999.10.0.2 --- europe 1999/11/13 19:27:45 1999.10 +++ europe 2000/02/17 23:50:01 1999.10.0.2 @@ -162,586 +162,15 @@ # Howse writes (p 157) `DBST'; let's assume this is a typo. -# From Peter Ilieve <peter(a)aldie.co.uk> (1998-04-19): -# The following list attempts to show the complete history of Summer Time -# legislation in the United Kingdom, and has quite a bit to say about -# the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands as well. -# -# Things that I have not personally seen are marked (???). Things that -# I haven't seen but Joseph Myers has are marked (jsm). The problem -# with finding old Orders (rather than Acts) is that nobody seems to -# keep the actual documents themselves, not even the Government. They -# get bound into annual volumes, which are published, but by the time -# this happens the Orders are mainly spent as the years they refer -# to have come and gone, so they don't get included in the annual -# volumes. -# -# Thanks are due to my learned legal friend Lorna Montgomerie, who dug out -# the dusty old statutes, to Melanie Allison of the Ministry of Defence, -# who provided the wartime regulations and a snippet of Hansard explaining -# why double summer time started on a Monday in 1945 (it was Easter), -# and to Joseph Myers <jsm28(a)cam.ac.uk>, who tracked down the Orders -# up to 1945, some of the old Acts, and the first five EC Directives. -# -# Some definitions: -# -# Great Britain: England, Scotland and Wales -# United Kingdom: Great Britain plus Ireland (up to 1922) or Northern -# Ireland (since 1922) -# S.I.: Statutory Instrument, the modern name for secondary legislation -# S.R.&O.: Statutory Rules and Orders, the older name for secondary legislation -# -# Unless otherwise specified, Acts and secondary legislation are assumed -# to apply throughout the United Kingdom, but not to the Isle of Man -# or the Channel Islands. -# -# Some of the Acts and Orders I found in various libraries, and I don't -# have copies. When I looked at them I was looking for dates and not things -# like whether they applied to the Bailiwick of Jersey. I will try to -# check these documents again. -# -# --- -# -# - The Statutes (Definition of Time) Act, 1880 (43 & 44 Vict. c. 9) -# -# Defined Greenwich mean time to be the standard time in Great Britain -# and Dublin mean time to be the standard time in Ireland, superseding -# various forms of local mean time. -# -# - The Statutory Time Act, 1883 (???) -# -# An Act of Tynwald, the Isle of Man Parliament. It appears to have -# defined the standard time on the Isle of Man as GMT but as I haven't -# seen it I don't know if it used Greenwich mean time, some other definition, -# or just said that Isle of Man time would be the same as in Great Britain. -# -# - The Isle of Man (War Legislation) Act, 1914 (4 & 5 Geo. 5. c. 62) -# -# Gives the power, by Order in Council, to extend wartime legislation -# to the Isle of Man. -# -# - The Summer Time Act, 1916 (6 & 7 Geo. 5. c. 14) -# -# Introduced Summer Time for the first time, in Great Britain and Ireland. -# Specified a one hour offset from GMT (DMT in Ireland), dates of -# Sunday 21 May and Sunday 1 October and times of 02:00 (GMT/DMT). -# Gave a power to make Orders in subsequent years, for the duration -# of the then current war. -# -# - The Time (Ireland) Act, 1916 (6 & 7 Geo. 5. c. 45) -# -# This abolished Dublin mean time at 02:00 DMT on Sunday 1 October 1916, -# bringing the whole of the United Kingdom onto GMT. As Ireland was behind -# GMT/BST at 02:00 DMT on 1 Oct Great Britain had already put the clocks back. -# Using Paul Eggert's suggestion of IST for Irish Summer Time and the figure -# derived from Whitman for the offset of IST from GMT (00:34:39) the sequence -# would have been: -# Dublin London -# 02:34:38 IST 02:59:59 BST -# 02:34:39 IST 02:00:00 GMT -# 02:59:59 IST 02:25:20 GMT -# 02:25:21 GMT 02:25:21 GMT -# with the transition 03:00:00 IST -> 02:00:00 DMT -> 02:25:21 GMT all at once. -# -# - S.R.&O. 1916, No. 382 -# -# An Order made under the Isle of Man (War Legislation) Act, 1914 -# extending the Summer Time Act, 1916 to the Isle of Man. Dated -# 23 May 1916, two days after the start of Summer Time, but it says that -# the Act is deemed to have taken effect in the Isle of Man at the same -# time as it took effect in the United Kingdom. -# -# - S.R.&O. 1917, No. 362 -# -# An Order made under the Summer Time Act, 1916 giving dates -# for Summer Time in 1917 of Sunday 8 April to Monday 17 September, -# both at 02:00 GMT. Note that Summer Time ends on a Monday. -# -# - S.R.&O. 1917, No. 358 -# -# An Order made under the Summer Time (Isle of Man) Act, 1916 -# (the thing created by S.R.&O. 1916, No. 382) specifying the same -# dates of 8 April to 17 September, at 02:00 GMT for the Isle of Man. -# -# - S.R.&O. 1918, No. 274 -# -# An Order made under the Summer Time Act, 1916 giving dates -# for Summer Time in 1918 of Sunday 24 March to Monday 30 September, -# both at 02:00 GMT. -# -# - S.R.&O. 1918, No. 429 -# -# The matching Isle of Man Order for 1918 with the same dates and times. -# -# - The Termination of the Present War (Definition) Act, 1918 -# (8 & 9 Geo. 5. c. 59) -# -# This gave power to specify a legal end date for the war just ended, -# which would affect things like the Summer Time Act, 1916, which applied -# only in wartime. This date was to be close to the date of formal -# ratification of the treaty or treaties of peace. -# -# - S.R.&O. 1919, No. 297 -# -# An Order made under the Summer Time Act, 1916 giving dates -# for Summer Time in 1919 of Sunday 30 March to Monday 29 September, -# both at 02:00 GMT. -# -# - S.R.&O. 1919, No. 366 -# -# The matching Isle of Man Order for 1919 with the same dates and times. -# -# - S.R.&O. 1920, No. 458 -# -# An Order made under the Summer Time Act, 1916 giving dates -# for Summer Time in 1920 of Sunday 28 March to Monday 27 September, -# both at 02:00 GMT. -# -# - S.R.&O. 1920, No. 573 -# -# The matching Isle of Man Order for 1920 with the same dates and times. -# -# - S.R.&O. 1920, No. 1844 -# -# An Order modifying both S.R.&O. 1920, No. 458 and S.R.&O. 1920, No. 573 to -# change the end date for Summer Time from Monday 27 September to -# Monday 25 October (the time remaining 02:00 GMT). The 1989 Green -# Paper (Cm 722) says this was done because of a coal strike. -# -# - The War Emergency Laws (Continuance) Act, 1920 (10 Geo. 5. c. 5) -# -# This extends the power to make Orders under the Summer Time Act, 1916 -# for a period of 12 months after the termination of the war. -# Came into force on 31 March 1920. Although the war had been over for more -# than 12 months by then the legal end date had not yet been set. -# -# - S.R.&O. 1921, No. 363 -# -# An Order made under the Summer Time Act, 1916 and the War -# Emergency Laws (Continuance) Act, 1920 giving dates for Summer Time -# in 1921 of Sunday 3 April to Monday 3 October, both at 02:00 GMT. -# -# - S.R.&O. 1921, No. 364 -# -# The matching Isle of Man Order for 1921 with the same dates and times. -# -# - S.R.&O. 1922, No. 264 -# -# An Order made under the Summer Time Act, 1916 and the War -# Emergency Laws (Continuance) Act, 1920 giving dates for Summer Time -# in 1921 of Sunday 26 March to Sunday 8 October, both at 02:00 GMT. -# It also mentions the arrangements for defining the legal end date -# for the late war. An Order was made on 10 August 1921, under the -# Termination of the Present War (Definition) Act, 1918, setting -# a date of 31 August 1921. This means the powers of the Summer Time -# Act, 1916 would finally expire on 31 August 1922. -# -# - S.R.&O. 1922, No. 290 (???) -# -# This is probably the matching Isle of Man Order. -# -# - The Summer Time Act, 1922 (12 & 13 Geo. 5. c. 22) -# -# This specifies an offset of 1 hour and dates of the day after the third -# Saturday in April, unless that be Easter, in which case it is the day after -# the second Saturday, and the day after the third Saturday in September. -# The time is 02:00 GMT. It applied in 1922 and 1923, and longer if Parliament -# so approved. It applied to the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands as well. -# Came into Force on 20 July 1920. Note the reversion to ending on a Sunday. -# -# - S.R.&O. 1922, No. 1205 -# -# An Order made under the War Emergency Laws (Continuance) Act, 1920 -# dated 13 October 1922. It revokes (among other things) the Order extending -# the Summer Time Act, 1916 to the Isle of Man. -# -# - The Expiring Laws Continuance Act, 1923 (13 & 14 Geo. 5. c. 37) -# -# This extended the Summer Time Act, 1922 (among other things) until -# 31 December 1924. -# -# - The Expiring Laws Continuance Act, 1924 (15 Geo. 5. c. 1) (jsm) -# -# This further extended the Summer Time Act, 1922 (among other things) until -# 31 December 1925. -# -# - The Time Act (Northern Ireland), 1924 (14 & 15 Geo. 5. c. 24 (N.I.)) -# -# This Act says that while it remains in force, any Act or Order relating -# to the time for general purposes in Great Britain shall also apply -# in Northern Ireland, and the Time (Ireland) Act, 1916 shall have effect -# accordingly. -# -# - The Summer Time Act, 1925 (15 & 16 Geo. 5. c. 64) -# -# This makes the 1922 Act permanent, with a change to the end date to the -# day after the first Saturday in October. Came into force on 7 August 1925. -# -# - The Emergency Powers (Defence) Act, 1939 (2 & 3 Geo. 6. c. 62) (???) -# -# I haven't seen this one. It presumably gave the Government powers to -# do all manner of things during the newly started war. -# -# - The Defence (Summer Time) Regulations, 1939, S.R.&O. 1939, No. 1379 -# -# These were made under the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act, 1939. -# They change the end date to be the day after the third Saturday in November. -# -# - S.R.&O. 1940, No. 172 -# -# An Order in Council amending the Defence (Summer Time) Regulations, 1939. -# It changed the start date to the day after the fourth Saturday in February -# (ie. 25 Feb 1940). -# -# - S.R.&O. 1940, No. 1883 -# -# Another Order amending the Defence (Summer Time) Regulations, 1939. -# This continues summer time throughout the year after it starts in 1940. -# -# - S.R.&O. 1941, No. 476 -# -# Another Order amending the Defence (Summer Time) Regulations, 1939. -# This introduces double summer time, starting at 01:00 GMT on the day after -# the first Saturday in May and ending at 01:00 GMT on the day after the -# second Saturday in August, offset another hour from normal summer time, -# which continues throughout the rest of the year. -# -# - S.R.&O. 1942, No. 506 -# -# Another Order amending the Defence (Summer Time) Regulations, 1939. -# This changes the start date of Double Summer Time to the day after the first -# Saturday in April, bringing it forward from May. -# -# - S.R.&O. 1944, No. 932 -# -# Another Order amending the Defence (Summer Time) Regulations, 1939. -# This changed the end date of Double Summer Time to the day after the -# third Saturday in September (ie. 17 September 1944). -# -# - S.R.&O. 1945, No. 312 -# -# Another Order amending the Defence (Summer Time) Regulations, 1939. -# This changes the start and end dates of Double Summer Time to the -# day after the first Sunday in April and the day after the second Saturday -# in July (ie. Mon 2 April to Sun 15 July). -# -# I have this quote from Hansard (the official record of the United Kingdom -# Parliament), Oral Answers, 1 March 1945, cols 1559--60, explaining the -# unusual start on a Monday: -# -# `58. Major Sir Goronwy Owen asked the Secretary of State for the Home -# Department if he is now able to state the Government's proposals -# regarding double summer time. -# -# [two other similar questions omitted] -# -# Mr. H. Morrison: The Government, in reviewing the matter, have -# considered, [...] the conclusion has been reached that the adoption of -# double summer time from the beginning of April is essential to the -# maintenance of the war effort. [...] As 1st April is Easter Sunday, -# when very early services are held in many churches, it is proposed that -# double summer time shall start not in the night preceding Easter -# Sunday, but in the night of Sunday-Monday so that it will operate from -# Monday, 2nd April.' -# -# - S.R.&O. 1945, No. 1208 -# -# An Order under the Emergency Powers (Defence) Acts, 1939 and 1940 revoking -# a long list of things, including the Defence (Summer Time) Regulations, 1939. -# This meant that Summer Time reverted to being set by the 1922 and 1925 Acts. -# It was made on 28 September, early enough to end Summer Time on the -# date defined by the 1925 Act: 7 October. -# -# - The Summer Time Act, 1947 (10 & 11 Geo. 6. c. 16) -# -# Came into force on 11 March 1947. Amended the Summer Time Acts, 1922 and -# 1925 to change the dates of Summer Time and to introduce Double Summer Time -# (although it doesn't give this, or any, name for this period of 2 hour -# offset from GMT). Dates are given for 1947 only and are: 02:00 GMT Sunday -# 16 March, 01:00 GMT Sunday 13 April, 01:00 GMT Sunday 10 August, and 02:00 -# Sunday 2 November. It gave a power to make Orders for subsequent years, -# both to vary the dates and to continue Double Summer Time. It applied -# to the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. -# -# - Summer Time Order, 1948 (S.I. 1948/495) -# -# An Order made under the Summer Time Act, 1947. Gave dates for 1948 of -# 14 March and 31 October, both at 02:00 GMT. -# -# Although the 1947 Act had legislated for Double Summer Time, this was -# not continued after 1947. -# -# - Summer Time Order, 1949 (S.I. 1949/373) -# -# Another Order made under the Summer Time Act, 1947. Gave dates for 1949 -# of 3 April and 30 October, both at 02:00 GMT. -# -# - Summer Time Order, 1950 (S.I. 1950/518) -# -# Another Order made under the Summer Time Act, 1947. Gave dates for 1950 -# of 16 April and 22 October, both at 02:00 GMT. -# -# - Summer Time Order, 1951 (S.I. 1951/430) -# -# Another Order made under the Summer Time Act, 1947. Gave dates for 1951 -# of 15 April and 21 October, both at 02:00 GMT. -# -# - Summer Time Order, 1952 (S.I. 1952/451) -# -# Another Order made under the Summer Time Act, 1947. Gave dates for 1952 -# of 20 April and 26 October, both at 02:00 GMT. -# -# This is the last of this run of Orders, so for 1953 things reverted -# to the 1922 and 1925 Acts. -# -# - The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland), 1954 (1954 c. 33 (N.I.)) (???) -# -# I presume that section 39 of this Act is similar to section 9 of the -# Interpretation Act, 1978 (listed below) in specifying GMT as the -# legal time in Northern Ireland, replacing the Time (Ireland) Act, 1916. -# -# - Summer Time Order, 1961 (S.I. 1961/71) -# -# Specified dates of 26 March and 29 October (02:00 GMT) for 1961 -# -# - Summer Time (1962) Order, 1961 (S.I. 1961/2465) -# -# Specified dates of 25 March to 28 October (02:00 GMT) for 1962. -# -# - Summer Time Order, 1963 (S.I. 1963/81) -# -# Specified dates of 31 March to 27 October (02:00 GMT) for 1963. -# -# - Summer Time (1964) Order, 1963 (S.I. 1963/2101) -# -# Specified dates of 22 March to 25 October (02:00 GMT) for 1964. -# -# - Summer Time Order, 1964 (S.I. 1964/1201) -# -# Specified dates for three years (all 02:00 GMT): -# 1965: 21 March to 24 October -# 1966: 20 March to 23 October -# 1967: 19 March to 29 October -# -# - Summer Time Order, 1967 (S.I. 1967/1148) -# - Summer Time Order, 1968 (S.I. 1968/117) -# -# The first of these specifies dates for 1968 of 18 February for the United -# Kingdom but 7 April for the Isle of Man, both ending on 27 October, -# all at 02:00 GMT. The second Order changes the Isle of Man start date -# to 18 February to match the United Kingdom. -# -# - The British Standard Time Act 1968 (1968 c. 45) -# -# This came into force on 27 October 1968 and continued summer time throughout -# the year. It expired at 02:00 GMT on 31 October 1971, as specified in the -# Act, as Parliament did not move to make this experment permanent. -# It applied to the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. -# -# Interestingly, it says baldly `This Act shall come into force on -# 27 October 1968', without giving a time. As S1 of the Act merely -# stated that `The time for general purposes in the United Kingdom -# (to be known as British standard time) shall be one hour in -# advance of Greenwich mean time throughout the year; ...' you could -# possibly argue that the start time of BStandardT was 00:00 1968-10-27, -# especially as the Act repealed the Summer Time Acts 1916--1947 in toto, -# thereby destroying the authority of the Summer Time Order specifying -# summer time in 1968. -# -# - The Manx Time Act 1968 -# -# This is an Act of Tynwald (the Isle of Man Parliament) that said that -# henceforth Manx time would be the same as the time in Great Britain. -# -# - The Summer Time Act 1972 (1972 c. 6) -# -# This specified a reversion to normal Summer Time behaviour with a start -# date of the day after the third Saturday in March, unless that is Easter, -# when it is the day after the second Saturday, and an end date of the day -# after the fourth Saturday in October. Times are at 02:00 GMT, offset is -# 1 hour. It gives the power to make Orders to vary these dates and -# times. This Act is still in force and is the legal authority for -# implementing the EC Directives in the United Kingdom. -# -# - The Interpretation Act 1978 (1978 c. 30) -# -# Section 9 of this Act replaces section 1 of the Statutes (Definition of -# Time) Act, 1880 with very similar wording maintaining GMT as the legal -# time in Great Britain. This does not apply in Northern Ireland (it -# has its own Interpretation Act listed above). -# -# - Council Directive of 22 July 1980 on summertime arrangements (80/737/EEC) -# -# The first of the European Directives on Summer Time. It specified start -# dates for 1981 and 1982. No agreement had been reached on end dates. -# Only dates were given, there was no rule like `last Sunday in March'. -# The main change for the United Kingdom was a move to a 01:00 GMT change -# time. The dates: -# 1981: 29 March -# 1982: 28 March -# -# - Summer Time Order, 1980 (S.I. 1980/1089) -# -# Specified dates for 1981 and 1982, with the start dates as in the -# EC Directive and all times 01:00 GMT: -# 1981: 29 March to 25 October -# 1982: 28 March to 24 October -# -# - Second Council Directive of 10 June 1982 on summertime arrangements -# (82/399/EEC) -# -# The next European Directive. Specified dates for three years, 1983 to 1985. -# Agreement still hadn't been reached on a common end date, and wouldn't -# be until 1994 with the appeareance of the seventh Directive with a common -# date for 1996 and beyond, but this time the Directive gave two sets of -# end dates. The start date was specified by rule: the last Sunday in March. -# All times were 01:00 GMT. The end dates were given without rule, as: -# 1983: 25 September or 23 October -# 1984: 30 September or 28 october -# 1985: 29 September or 27 October -# -# - Summer Time Order, 1982 (S.I. 1982/1673) -# -# Implemented the second EC Directive, using the October end dates. -# 1983: 27 March to 23 October -# 1984: 25 March to 28 october -# 1985: 31 March to 27 October -# -# - Third Council Directive of 12 December 1984 on summertime arrangements -# (84/634/EEC) -# -# Specified start dates of the last Sunday in March and two sets of end -# dates, last Sunday in September and fourth Sunday in October, all at -# 01:00 GMT. The end dates were also specified as dates: -# 1986: 28 September or 26 October -# 1987: 27 September or 25 October -# 1988: 25 September or 23 October -# -# - Summer Time Order, 1986 (S.I. 1986/223) -# -# Implemented the third EC Directive, using the October end dates. -# 1986: 30 March to 26 October -# 1987: 29 March to 25 October -# 1988: 27 March to 23 October -# -# - Council Directive of 20 December 1985 amending Directive 84/634/EEC -# on summertime arrangements (85/582/EEC) -# -# This was to do with the accession of Spain and Portugal to the EEC. -# The previous directve had used wording like `Member States belonging -# to the zero (Greenwich) time zone' when refering to the different -# sets of end dates. Portugal was in that time zone but was not going -# to follow the United Kingdom and Ireland dates, so the text was reworded -# without any change to the dates themselves. -# -# - Fourth Council Directive of 22 December 1987 on summertime arrangements -# (88/14/EEC) -# -# This Directive covered only a single year: 1989. My guess is that -# this was because 1989 was one of the years when the historic United Kingdom -# end date of the Sunday after the fourth Saturday in October differed from -# the rule in the previous Directive of the fourth Sunday in October. -# All times are 01:00 GMT. No rule was specified, specific dates were given: -# 1989: 26 March to 24 September or 29 October -# -# - Summer Time Order, 1988 (S.I. 1988/931) -# -# Implemented the dates of 26 March to 29 October for 1989. -# -# - Fifth Council Directive of 21 December 1988 on summertime arrangements -# (89/47/EEC) -# -# Covered the three years 1990 to 1992. All times are 01:00 GMT. Gave both -# rules (last Sunday in March, last Sunday in September or fourth Sunday -# in October) and specific dates: -# 1990: 25 March to 30 September or 28 October -# 1991: 31 March to 29 September or 27 October -# 1992: 29 March to 27 September or 25 October -# -# - Summer Time Order, 1989 (S.I. 1989/985) -# -# Implemented the fifth Directive using the October end dates. -# -# - Sixth Council Directive 92/20/EEC of 26 March 1992 on summertime -# arrangements -# -# Covered the two years 1993 and 1994. All times are 01:00 GMT. Specified -# both rules (same as the fifth Directive) and specific dates: -# 1993: 28 March to 26 September or 24 October -# 1994: 27 March to 25 September or 23 October -# -# - Summer Time Order, 1992 (S.I. 1992/1729) -# -# Implemented the sixth Directive using the October end dates. -# -# - Seventh Directive 94/21/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council -# of 30 May 1994 on summer-time arrangements -# -# Covered the three years 1995 to 1997. Agreement had finally been reached -# on a common end date, to start in 1996. Both rules and dates were given. -# The rules were the same last Sunday in March to last Sunday in September -# or fourth Sunday in October for 1995, with the end rule changing to the -# last Sunday in October for 1996 and 1997. The year 1995 was another of -# the tricky ones where the EC and traditional United Kingdom rules differed -# but this time the UK changed on the fourth Sunday, 22 October, earlier -# than usual. All times are 01:00 GMT. Specific dates were also given: -# 1995: 26 March to 24 September or 22 October -# 1996: 31 March to 27 October -# 1997: 30 March to 26 October -# -# - Summer Time Order 1994 (S.I. 1994/2798) -# -# Implements the seventh Directive using the October end date in 1995. -# Applies also to the Bailiwick of Guernsey but not to the Bailiwick of -# Jersey or the Isle of Man, which have their own (unspecified) legislation -# on the subject. -# -# - Eighth Directive 97/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council -# of 22 July 1997 on summer-time arrangements -# -# Covers four years: 1998 to 2001. All times are 01:00 GMT. Specifies both -# rules, last Sunday in March and last Sunday in October, and specific dates: -# 1998: 29 March to 25 October -# 1999: 28 March to 31 October -# 2000: 26 March to 29 October -# 2001: 25 March to 28 October -# -# <a href="http://www.hmso.gov.uk/si/si1997/97298201.htm"> -# - Summer Time Order 1997 (S.I. 1997/2982) -# </a> -# -# Implements the eighth Directive. Has the same text about the Isle of Man, -# Guernsey and Jersey as the 1994 Order. +# Peter Ilieve <peter(a)aldie.co.uk> (1998-04-19) described at length +# the history of summer time legislation in the United Kingdom. +# Since 1998 Joseph S. Myers <jsm28(a)cam.ac.uk> has been updating +# and extending this list, which can be found in +# <a href="http://student.cusu.cam.ac.uk/~jsm28/british-time/"> +# History of legal time in Britain +# </a> (2000-02-12). -# From Joseph S. Myers (1999-09-02): -# I today found the 1916 summer time orders for the Channel Islands in -# the Public Record Office (HO 45/10811/312364).... Alderney, -# Jersey and Guernsey all enacted summer time for 1916 (and the -# enactment for the Isle of Man is already noted). This doesn't -# complete the resolution of timekeeping in the Channel Islands, since -# 1917-1921 need to be resolved for the Channel Islands, and it isn't -# clear whether the islands were using GMT or local time then. The -# changes in Alderney and Guernsey were at the same 2am GMT time as -# for Great Britain; the order for Jersey is more interesting. -# -# From Paul Eggert (1999-10-22): -# Mark Brader kindly translated the 1916 Jersey order from the French. -# It says that the 1916 transitions were 05-20 and 09-30 at midnight. -# No doubt this was 24:00, two or three hours earlier than Great Britain. -# It also says that after 1916 they'll sync with Great Britain. - -# From Joseph S. Myers (1999-09-28): -# I have the 1918 orders for Guernsey, Alderney (both changing on same -# dates as UK, 2am GMT) and Sark (same dates; start and end at 2am, -# start "temps de Greenwich" (not specified as "temps moyen de -# Greenwich" which was used in the other orders) and end in an -# unspecified zone). For Jersey the same file (Public Record Office: HO -# 45/10892/357138) includes letters to the effect that in 1918 and 1919 -# the States of Jersey agreed the same start and end dates as the UK -# (times unspecified, and it was the 1916 Jersey order that specified -# change at midnight of an unspecified zone). - -# From Joseph S. Myers <jsm28(a)hermes.cam.ac.uk> (1998-01-06): +# From Joseph S. Myers <jsm28(a)cam.ac.uk> (1998-01-06): # # The legal time in the UK outside of summer time is definitely GMT, not UTC; # see Lord Tanlaw's speech @@ -749,19 +178,11 @@ # (Lords Hansard 11 June 1997 columns 964 to 976) # </a>. -# From Paul Eggert (1999-09-20): +# From Paul Eggert (2000-02-17): # -# The date `20 April 1924' in the table of ``Summer Time: A -# Consultation Document'' (Cm 722, 1989) table is a transcription error; -# 20 April was an Easter Sunday. Shanks has 13 April, the correct date. -# Also, the table is not quite right for 1925 through 1938; the correct rules -# (which Shanks uses) are given in the Summer Time Acts of 1922 and 1925. -# Shanks and the UK Government paper disagree about the Apr 1956 transition; -# since we have no other data, and since Shanks was correct in the other -# points of disagreement about London, we'll believe Shanks for now. -# Also, for lack of other data, we'll follow Shanks for Eire in 1940-1948. +# For lack of other data, we'll follow Shanks for Eire in 1940-1948. # -# Given Peter Ilieve's comments, the following claims by Shanks are incorrect: +# Given Ilieve and Myers's data, the following claims by Shanks are incorrect: # * Wales did not switch from GMT to daylight saving time until # 1921 Apr 3, when they began to conform with the rest of Great Britain. # Actually, Wales was identical after 1880. @@ -1326,6 +747,11 @@ Zone America/Thule -4:35:08 - LMT 1916 J # for all member states until 2001. Brussels has yet to decide what to do # after that. +# From Mart Oruaas (2000-01-29): +# Regulation no. 301 (1999-10-12) obsoletes previous regulation +# no. 206 (1998-09-22) and thus sticks Estonia to +02:00 GMT for all +# the year round. The regulation is effective 1999-11-01. + # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Europe/Tallinn 1:39:00 - LMT 1880 1:39:00 - TMT 1918 Feb # Tallinn Mean Time @@ -1337,7 +763,7 @@ Zone Europe/Tallinn 1:39:00 - LMT 1880 3:00 Russia MSK/MSD 1989 Mar 26 2:00s 2:00 1:00 EEST 1989 Sep 24 2:00s 2:00 C-Eur EE%sT 1998 Sep 22 - 2:00 EU EE%sT 2000 + 2:00 EU EE%sT 1999 Nov 1 2:00 - EET # Finland =================================================================== RCS file: RCS/tz-art.htm,v retrieving revision 2000.1 retrieving revision 2000.1.0.1 diff -pu -r2000.1 -r2000.1.0.1 --- tz-art.htm 2000/01/18 14:21:25 2000.1 +++ tz-art.htm 2000/02/17 23:20:20 2000.1.0.1 @@ -1,15 +1,13 @@ -<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/strict.dtd"> +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"> <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Time and the Arts</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <H1>Time and the Arts</H1> -<P> -<H6> +<ADDRESS> @(#)tz-art.htm 7.28 -</H6> -</P> +</ADDRESS> <PRE> "Is that a pertinent fact, or are you trying to dazzle me with your command of time zones?" =================================================================== RCS file: RCS/tz-link.htm,v retrieving revision 2000.1 retrieving revision 2000.1.0.3 diff -pu -r2000.1 -r2000.1.0.3 --- tz-link.htm 2000/01/18 14:21:25 2000.1 +++ tz-link.htm 2000/02/17 23:55:50 2000.1.0.3 @@ -1,65 +1,101 @@ -<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/strict.dtd"> +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"> <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Sources for Time Zone and Daylight Saving Time Data</TITLE> +<LINK REL="schema.DC" HREF="http://purl.org/DC/elements/1.1/"> +<META NAME="DC.Creator" CONTENT="Paul Eggert"> +<META NAME="DC.Contributor" CONTENT="Arthur David Olson"> +<META NAME="DC.Date" CONTENT="20%E%"> +<META NAME="DC.Description" + CONTENT="Sources of information about time zones and daylight saving time"> +<META NAME="DC.Identifier" CONTENT="http://www.twinsun.com/tz/tz-link.htm"> +<META NAME="Keywords" + CONTENT="database,daylight saving,DST,time zone,timezone,tz,zoneinfo"> </HEAD> <BODY> <H1>Sources for Time Zone and Daylight Saving Time Data</H1> -<P> -<H6> +<ADDRESS> @(#)tz-link.htm 7.20 -</H6> -<H2>Paul Eggert writes:</H2><P> -The public-domain tz database contains code and data +</ADDRESS> +<H2>The <samp>tz</samp> database</H2><P> +The public-domain time zone 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>) +This database (often called <samp>tz</samp> or <samp>zoneinfo</samp>) is used by several implementations, including BSD, DJGPP, GNU/Linux, HP-UX, IRIX, Solaris, and UnixWare. -In the tz database's +In the <samp>tz</samp> 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 data are by no means authoritative. If you find errors, please +send changes to the <A HREF="mailto:tz@elsie.nci.nih.gov">time zone +mailing list</A>. You can also <A +HREF="mailto:tz-request@elsie.nci.nih.gov">subscribe</A> to the +mailing list, or retrieve the <A +HREF="ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzarchive.gz">archive of old +messages</A> (in <A HREF="http://www.gzip.org/">gzip</A> compressed +format). +<P> The <A HREF="http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/">GNU C Library</A> has an independent, thread-safe implementation of -a time zone file reader that is compatible with <samp>zoneinfo</samp>. +a time zone file reader that is compatible with <samp>tz</samp>. This library is freely available under the GNU Library General Public License, and is widely used in GNU/Linux systems. <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. +<H2>Web pages using recent versions of the <samp>tz</samp> database</H2> <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.bsdi.com/date/">Date and Time Gateway</A> is a +text-based point-and-click interface to tables of current time +throughout the world. +<LI><A HREF="http://sandbox.xerox.com/stewart/tzconvert.cgi">CGI/1.0 +URL Timezone Converter</A> is a similar interface, with source code +written in <A HREF="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</A>, using what Paul +Stewart calls the "20-line hack no one will let me forget". +<LI><A HREF="http://www.hilink.com.au/times/">Local Times Around the World</A> +is a fancier web interface. +<LI><A HREF="http://timezoneconverter.com/">Time Zone Converter</A> +is an even fancier interface. +<LI><A HREF="http://www.burbs.com/fcgi-bin/tzconvert.fcgi">Burbs time +zone converter</A> is a multilingual interface. <LI><A HREF="http://www1.tip.nl/~t876506/AboutTimeZonesHC.html">HyperCard time zones calculator</A> is a <A -HREF="http://www.apple.com/hypercard/">HyperCard</A> interface to a -recent version of the tz data. +HREF="http://apple.com/hypercard/">HyperCard</A> interface. +<LI><A HREF="http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/">The World Clock</A> +is a web interface to a time zone database derived from +<samp>tz</samp>'s. +</UL> +<H2>Other time zone databases</H2> +<UL> <LI><A HREF="http://www.astro.ch/atlas/">Astrology / Astrologie -> Astrodienst Atlas Database</A> is Astrodienst's Web version of <A -HREF="http://www.astrocom.com/books/xrefa.htm#SHANKS">Shanks's +HREF="http://astrocom.com/books/xrefa.htm#SHANKS">Shanks's excellent time zone history atlases</A> published by <A -HREF="http://www.astrocom.com/">Astro Communications Services</A>. +HREF="http://astrocom.com/">Astro Communications Services</A>. <LI><A HREF="http://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 United States Central Intelligence Agency publishes a -<A HREF="http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/figures/802649.pdf">time +for the <samp>usno*</samp> files in the <samp>tz</samp> distribution. +<LI>The <A HREF="http://iata.org/">International Air Transport Association</A> +publishes the IATA Standard Schedules Information Manual (SSIM), +which gives current time zone rules for +all the airports served by commercial aviation. +</UL> +<H2>Maps</H2> +<UL> +<LI>The United States Central Intelligence Agency publishes a <A +HREF="http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/figures/802649.pdf">time zone map</A>; the <A HREF="http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/world_maps.html"> Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection</A> @@ -68,18 +104,54 @@ recent editions. The pictorial quality is good, but the maps do not indicate summer time, and parts of the data are a few years out of date. -<LI><A HREF="http://worldtimezone.com/"><SAMP>Worldtimezone.com</SAMP></A> +<LI><A HREF="http://worldtimezone.com/">World time zones map with +current time</A> has several fancy time zone maps; it covers Russia particularly well. The maps' pictorial quality is not quite as good as the CIA's and (as usual with maps) the maps are not quite up to date. +</UL> +<H2>Daylight saving time concepts and history</H2> +<UL> +<LI><A HREF="http://webexhibits.com/daylightsaving/">Daylight +Saving Time -- History, rationale, laws and dates</A> +is a good overall history of DST. <LI><A HREF="http://www.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 few countries have well-documented histories of legal time. +<DL> +<DT>Australia +<DD>The Community Relations Division of the New South Wales (NSW) +Attorney General's Department maintains a <A +HREF="http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/crd.nsf/pages/time2">history of +daylight saving in NSW</A>. +<DT>Brazil +<DD>The Time Service Department of the National Observatory +records <A HREF="http://pcdsh01.on.br/DecHV.html" +HREFLANG="pt-BR">Brazil's daylight saving time decrees (in +Portuguese)</A>. +<DT>Germany +<DD>The National Institute for Science and Technology maintains <A +HREF="http://www.ptb.de/english/org/4/43/432/lega.htm">a history of +German legal time</A>. +<DT>Israel +<DD>The Ministry of Interior periodically issues <A +HREF="ftp://ftp.huji.ac.il/pub/tz/announcements" +HREFLANG="he">announcements (in Hebrew)</A>. +<DT>United Kingdom +<DD><A +HREF="http://student.cusu.cam.ac.uk/~jsm28/british-time/">History of +legal time in Britain</A> is an excellent discussion for the country +with perhaps the best-documented history of clock adjustments. +</DL> +</UL> +<H2>Precision timekeeping</H2> +<UL> <LI><A HREF="http://ecco.bsee.swin.edu.au/chronos/GMT-explained.html">A Few Facts Concerning GMT, UT, and the RGO</A> -answers questions like ``What is the difference between GMT and UTC?'' +answers questions like "What is the difference between GMT and UTC?" <LI><A HREF="http://sadira.gb.nrao.edu/~rfisher/Ephemerides/times.html">Astronomical Times</A> explains more abstruse astronomical time scales like TT, TCG, @@ -87,34 +159,24 @@ and TDB. <LI><A HREF="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/basics/bsf2-3.htm">Earth and Its Reference Systems</A> briefly explains interplanetary space flight timekeeping. -<LI><A HREF="http://www.webexhibits.com/daylightsaving/">Daylight -Saving Time -- History, rationale, laws and dates</A> -is a good history of DST. -<LI><A HREF="http://dir.yahoo.com/Science/Measurements_and_Units/Time/Time_Zones/">Yahoo! - Science:Measurements and Units:Time:Time Zones</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 Standard Schedules Information Manual (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> -<P> --- <A HREF="mailto:eggert@twinsun.com">eggert(a)twinsun.com</A> -(2000-01-10) -</P> -<H2>Arthur David Olson writes:</H2><P> -A good source of information about -<A HREF="http://www.iso.ch/markete/moreend.htm">ISO 8601</A> seems to be -<A HREF="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/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>Time notation</H2> +<UL> +<LI> +<A HREF="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-time.html">A Summary of +the International Standard Date and Time Notation</A> is a good +summary of <A HREF="http://www.iso.ch/markete/moreend.htm">ISO +8601</A>. +</UL> +<H2>Related indexes</H2> +<UL> +<LI><A HREF="http://dmoz.org/Reference/Time/">Open Directory - +Reference: Time</A> +<LI><A HREF="http://dir.yahoo.com/Science/Measurements_and_Units/Time/Time_Zones/">Yahoo! - Science:Measurements and Units:Time:Time Zones</A> +</UL> </BODY> </HTML>

3 4

FW: PC program
by Olson, Arthur David (NCI) Feb. 21, 2000

Feb. 21, 2000

-----Original Message----- From: Jesper Nørgaard [SMTP:jnorgard@Prodigy.Net.mx] Sent: Saturday, February 19, 2000 7:18 AM To: 'TZ mailing list' Subject: PC program I have recently uploaded the PC program Time Zone Converter 1.5 (sincere apologizes to several programs, and the web page, for using the same name, but I did it before I knew of their existence!) to a number of software servers. The program handles more than 2900 cities in the world - a vast effort to put in place! At the moment I have confidence in the correctness of the data, but at least the GMT offsets of the russian cities might have some mistakes. I anyone would care to send me his or her opionion about the program, especially about correctnes and completeness, functionality and manageability, and how you like the program from a personal standpoint, I would appreciate it a lot. My thanks goes to the tzdata people in general, and Paul Eggert, David Olson, Steffen Thorsen and Oscar van Vlijmen in particular, since without their work on publishing the latest time zone detective issues, this program would probably never have been started. The main handling of time zone data is based on a text file which however has been made with a keen eye on the tzdata file (e.g. it doesn't use the tzdata file directly). The program also has a sort of time calculator (Future Date) which makes it possible to view dates in the past and in the future. You can see the daylight saving start and end as well as the rule which governs it clicking on "Info" with a particular entry selected. For each entry you can see if it has daylight saving during the year, and if so, if the daylight saving is currently in use. The program doesn't handle historical data. I should mention that the program integrates advertising technology, and will occasionally make use of the internet connection. The home page where it can be downloaded from is http://timezone50.homepage.com/index.html, and there is a small review of the program (with 2 screen shots) on http://www.completelyfreesoftware.com/reviews/du_w95_tmz32.html. Regards, Jesper Nørgaard Email: jnorgard(a)df1.telmex.net.mx Programador/Analista CIMMYT - Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo Dirección: CIMMYT, Lisboa 27, 06600 Mexico, D.F. Tel.: +52 (5) 7267541 ext. 1374 Fax: +52 (5) 7267558 Tel. Casa: 53-10-05-95 ó 53-10-97-78 CIMMYT home page: http://www.cimmyt.mx

1 0

tzcode2000b.tar.gz and tzdata2000b.tar.gz
by Olson, Arthur David (NCI) Feb. 21, 2000

Feb. 21, 2000

The files ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzcode2000b.tar.gz and ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzdata2000b.tar.gz are now available. These incorporate changes circulated on the time zone mailing list by Paul Eggert and Joseph Myers, as well as modest tweaks to the tz-art.htm and tz-link.htm files. --ado

1 0

Singles Club
by DatingOnline＠aol.com Feb. 20, 2000

Feb. 20, 2000

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1 0

POSIX time_t study group created
by Paul Eggert Feb. 20, 2000

Feb. 20, 2000

The Open Group, which is drafting the next POSIX.1 standard, has formed a mailing list for issues relating to the standardization of new time_t primitives. The idea, I believe, is to invent a new time type, which would be an integer count of nanoseconds since an epoch (or something close to that). This would assume the availability of 64-bit integer types, as required by the 1999 C Standard and common in recent C implementations. It's not clear to me whether this new type would be in the next POSIX.1 standard, or the one after that. I'm forwarding the following announcement of this new mailing list with permission from Andrew Josey of the Open Group. ------- Start of forwarded message ------- Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2000 11:28:38 GMT From: Andrew Josey <ajosey(a)rdg.opengroup.org> Message-Id: <1000218112838.ZM17952(a)skye.rdg.opengroup.org> Reply-To: ajosey(a)rdg.opengroup.org (Andrew Josey) To: pasc-sec(a)opengroup.org Subject: (pasc-sec 675) Creation of the time_t study group Cc: austin-group(a)opengroup.org All I have created a mailing list for the time_t study group. This is pasc-time-study(a)opengroup.org If you'd like to be added as a subscriber please let me know. best regards Andrew - ----- Andrew Josey The Open Group Director, Server Platforms Apex Plaza,Forbury Road, Email: a.josey(a)opengroup.org Reading,Berks.RG1 1AX,England Tel: +44 118 9508311 ext 2250 Fax: +44 118 9500110 GSM: +44 7974207557 ------- End of forwarded message -------

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PC program
by Jesper Nørgaard Feb. 19, 2000

Feb. 19, 2000

I have recently uploaded the PC program Time Zone Converter 1.5 (sincere apologizes to several programs, and the web page, for using the same name, but I did it before I knew of their existence!) to a number of software servers. The program handles more than 2900 cities in the world - a vast effort to put in place! At the moment I have confidence in the correctness of the data, but at least the GMT offsets of the russian cities might have some mistakes. I anyone would care to send me his or her opionion about the program, especially about correctnes and completeness, functionality and manageability, and how you like the program from a personal standpoint, I would appreciate it a lot. My thanks goes to the tzdata people in general, and Paul Eggert, David Olson, Steffen Thorsen and Oscar van Vlijmen in particular, since without their work on publishing the latest time zone detective issues, this program would probably never have been started. The main handling of time zone data is based on a text file which however has been made with a keen eye on the tzdata file (e.g. it doesn't use the tzdata file directly). The program also has a sort of time calculator (Future Date) which makes it possible to view dates in the past and in the future. You can see the daylight saving start and end as well as the rule which governs it clicking on "Info" with a particular entry selected. For each entry you can see if it has daylight saving during the year, and if so, if the daylight saving is currently in use. The program doesn't handle historical data. I should mention that the program integrates advertising technology, and will occasionally make use of the internet connection. The home page where it can be downloaded from is http://timezone50.homepage.com/index.html, and there is a small review of the program (with 2 screen shots) on http://www.completelyfreesoftware.com/reviews/du_w95_tmz32.html. Regards, Jesper Nørgaard Email: jnorgard(a)df1.telmex.net.mx Programador/Analista CIMMYT - Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo Dirección: CIMMYT, Lisboa 27, 06600 Mexico, D.F. Tel.: +52 (5) 7267541 ext. 1374 Fax: +52 (5) 7267558 Tel. Casa: 53-10-05-95 ó 53-10-97-78 CIMMYT home page: http://www.cimmyt.mx

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Israel Timezone -- Dates for 2000-2002
by Ephraim Silverberg Feb. 17, 2000

Feb. 17, 2000

Attached are the context diffs of the 'asia' file of tzdata2000a.tar.gz showing the start/end dates of Daylight Savings Time in Israel from 2000 until 2002 inclusive. As the comment in the file notes, the end date of 2000 and both dates for 2001 and 2002 are pending final approval. -----------------------------------CUT-HERE------------------------------------ *** asia.orig Tue Jan 18 16:21:18 2000 --- asia Thu Feb 17 14:55:59 2000 *************** *** 1,4 **** ! # @(#)asia 7.51 # This data is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, # go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to --- 1,4 ---- ! # @(#)asia 7.52 # This data is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, # go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to *************** *** 588,605 **** Rule Zion 1999 only - Apr 2 2:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1999 only - Sep 3 2:00 0 S ! # Due to imminent elections in 1999, there are no dates for the year 2000 ! # and beyond. There was a move to legislate the DST rules in Israel, but ! # due to the government's fall, it most likely won't be brought to the Knesset ! # for first reading before the elections and will probably be altered by the ! # newly elected government. # From Paul Eggert (1999-01-30): ! # Here are guesses for rules after 1999. # 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 2000 max - Apr Fri>=1 2:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 2000 max - Sep Fri>=1 2:00 0 S # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Asia/Jerusalem 2:20:56 - LMT 1880 --- 588,616 ---- Rule Zion 1999 only - Apr 2 2:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1999 only - Sep 3 2:00 0 S ! # Minister of Interior, Natan Sharansky, has announced the dates for ! # the years 2000-2002. However, sources inside the ministry have noted ! # that the end date of 2000 and both dates of 2001-2002 should be regarded ! # as tentative pending final approval. ! # ! # The official announcement for the years 2000-2001 can be viewed at: ! # ! # ftp://ftp.huji.ac.il/pub/tz/announcements/2000-2002.ps.gz ! ! # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S ! Rule Zion 2000 only - Apr 14 2:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 2000 only - Oct 22 2:00 0 S ! Rule Zion 2001 only - Apr 6 2:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 2001 only - Oct 10 2:00 0 S ! Rule Zion 2002 only - Mar 29 2:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 2002 only - Sep 29 2:00 0 S # From Paul Eggert (1999-01-30): ! # Here are guesses for rules after 2002. # 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 2003 max - Mar Fri>=25 2:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 2003 max - Sep Fri>=24 2:00 0 S # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Asia/Jerusalem 2:20:56 - LMT 1880 ----------------------------------UNTIL-HERE----------------------------------- ___________________________________________________________________________ Ephraim Silverberg, CSE 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)cse.huji.ac.il

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FW: Time Zone question
by Olson, Arthur David (NCI) Feb. 16, 2000

Feb. 16, 2000

Rajendra is not on the time zone mailing list; be sure to address replies appropriately. --ado -----Original Message----- From: Dodhiawala, Rajendra [SMTP:raj.dodhiawala@cacheflow.com] Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2000 4:42 PM To: tz(a)elsie.nci.nih.gov Subject: Time Zone question I have looked at various resources for Time Zone data and found your tzcode, tzdata files to be most useful. Unfortunately, there is one piece of information I have not be able to locate on any of the TimeZone-related resources on the Internet: - What is a good way to display time such that TZ info is absolutely clear. ISO 8601 falls short of this. For example, YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss-08:00 is insufficient because -08:00 is -07:00 in the summer and thus indistinguishable from Arizona which also uses -07:00. Adding the timezone makes sense, as in YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss-07:00PST Is there any standard for this or precedence on how this is handled in current (popular?) operating systems. Any other pointers? Finally, is there any program/script (for Linux, for example) that will display all the abbreviations based on the rules in the zone.tab and continent files? Just the most recent abbreviation will do. Such a program would eliminate errors when manually extracting zone abbreviations. Appreciate your response, --Raj

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Time Zone question
by Dodhiawala, Rajendra Feb. 15, 2000

Feb. 15, 2000

I have looked at various resources for Time Zone data and found your tzcode, tzdata files to be most useful. Unfortunately, there is one piece of information I have not be able to locate on any of the TimeZone-related resources on the Internet: - What is a good way to display time such that TZ info is absolutely clear. ISO 8601 falls short of this. For example, YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss-08:00 is insufficient because -08:00 is -07:00 in the summer and thus indistinguishable from Arizona which also uses -07:00. Adding the timezone makes sense, as in YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss-07:00PST Is there any standard for this or precedence on how this is handled in current (popular?) operating systems. Any other pointers? Finally, is there any program/script (for Linux, for example) that will display all the abbreviations based on the rules in the zone.tab and continent files? Just the most recent abbreviation will do. Such a program would eliminate errors when manually extracting zone abbreviations. Appreciate your response, --Raj

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History of time in the UK
by Joseph S. Myers Feb. 12, 2000

Feb. 12, 2000

I have attempted to turn the historical information on time in the UK, given in the europe file, into a web page, which may now be found at http://student.cusu.cam.ac.uk/~jsm28/british-time/ For the most part the information content is similar to that in the europe file. However, I have attempted to include long titles and date for all Acts and Orders; details of those Channel Islands laws I have are included; this history has been prepared with reference to copies of all 80 laws covered; I have attempted to clearly enumerate the probable gaps; I have tried to indicate exactly what was stated and covered by each law, and what powers were used; those orders that cannot be found simply by reference to the annual published volumes are indicated as such; the occasions of a start on Easter Day have been noted as such. Some commentary from the europe file is not included. Additional to those laws listed in the europe file: S.R.&O. 1921 No. 1276 (defining termination of WW1). More careful details of what was happening under what powers in 1922. tz's behaviour is correct, the comments misleading. Expiring Laws Continuance Act (Northern Ireland), 1923. The main Expiring Laws Continuance Act, 1923 did not cover extending the Summer Time Act, 1922's validity in Northern Ireland. Emergency Powers (Defence) Acts, 1939 and 1940 - more details. Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland), 1954 - account of actual effect from reference to the Act. British Standard Time Act, 1968 - new analysis of the time at which it came into effect (subject to proper verification when the relevant files enter the Public Record Office and are opened under the 30 year rule, in 2002 or so). Details of repeals, and what laws revived on its expiry, with what amendment. Summer Time Act 1972 - this consolidated previous laws without substantive changes. The changes dates already applied on expiry of the 1968 Act. Interpretation Act 1978 - _does_ apply to Northern Ireland. Application of modern orders to Isle of Man and Channel Islands - wording quoted for 1994 starts in 1980. European directives and their implementation - some require different end dates for UK and Ireland, others permit them. The 8th directive is available online. -- Joseph S. Myers jsm28(a)cam.ac.uk

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TZ web page: not effortless
by Oscar van Vlijmen Feb. 12, 2000

Feb. 12, 2000

Following the thought given by Paul Eggert (Feb. 10): "But is it worth our time to do, given that we'd be duplicating other people's efforts?" I would like to add: Looking around, for instance at: http://sandbox.xerox.com/stewart/tzconvert.cgi - update: tzdata1999e http://www.timezoneconverter.com/ - update: Oct. 13 1999 http://www.burbs.com/fcgi-bin/tzconvert.fcgi - update: Nov. 15 1998 http://www.bsdi.com/date - update: periodically; seems reasonably up to date but still not tzdata2000a http://www.hilink.com.au/times/ - update: unknown; seems not very up to date (e.g. Tonga) http://www.timeanddate.com/ - update: tzdata2000a ? it can be noticed that it appears very difficult to maintain an up to date timezone converter. At the moment Steffen Thorsen of timeanddate.com spends between 5 and 10 hours weekly maintaining and evolving his site, which is in existence since 1995 (source: http://www.timeanddate.com/steffen/) Very impressive, but for how long from now? Keep in mind that the Olson effort (tzcode & tzdata) exists since 1986. If someone can guarantee that he or she can find the time, energy and resources to maintain for many years an up to date TZ web application, then go ahead. If possible, as Gwillim Law noted Feb. 8, including all historical data. If it cannot be guaranteed that with each tzdata update the web application gets updated too, it could be wise to forget this idea. Don't even bother to produce long lists of time-related (and calendar-related) web links; there are many more and some very good ones at the moment, and it takes a lot of time to keep those lists up to date. My general idea is: without long-term updating guarantees: just stay with a passive web page, promoting the merits of tzcode & tzdata and the "private investigation" services. For the moment, an extra impact should be gained from submitting tz-link.htm to search engines and keepers of lists with time/calendar info. Oscar van Vlijmen 2000-02-11

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Re: Web page idea
by Paul Eggert Feb. 10, 2000

Feb. 10, 2000

From: "Eric Ulevik" <eau(a)ozemail.com.au> Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2000 00:41:32 +1100 The web page could include direct links to the latest version of tzcode and tzdata, and a web-based interface for looking up the current local time around the world. I know of four sites that do this now. Paul Stewart's "Timezone Converter" <http://sandbox.xerox.com/stewart/tzconvert.cgi> publishes the source code, so it wouldn't be hard to clone, if we could find someone who wanted to host it. But is it worth our time to do, given that we'd be duplicating other people's efforts?

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RE: What's in a name?
by Law, Gwil Jr. Feb. 8, 2000

Feb. 8, 2000

Eric Ulevik [eau(a)ozemail.com.au] wrote: [EU]>From: "Oscar van Vlijmen" <o.van.vlijmen(a)tip.nl> [OvV]>> About the naming of the TZ timezone database. This discussion appears to be searching for a name that will give the general public an idea of what we're doing. If, as I believe, the Olson archive is the most complete and accurate collection of historical time zone data in the world (possibly excepting the Shanks atlases), there are a lot of people who should know about it...not just Unix techies. To the general public, "zoneinfo" is not self-explanatory. There are too many types of zone. I think the name selected should contain either "timezone", "time zone", or "tz". [OvV]>> The main issue was: more visible webpresentation. The host of the "official" site of the tz mailing list should know how to get ranked high by search engines. [EU]>For impact, the main web page must be short and to the point. It should offer a very user-friendly interface to the tzdata archive. At <http://www1.tip.nl/~t876506/DSTtable.html>, Oscar van Vlijmen's new page is a good start. The next step would be to open up the full range of historical data. An advantage to having a highly visible Web site is that we would get more updates and error reports from well-informed laymen. The webmaster would have to spend a good deal of time processing those messages. Who volunteers to be webmaster? [EU]>I'd be happy to do some of the editing if someone can host the site. I infer that you're not willing or able to host it. I can modestly offer some of my space on Mindspring. See my page <http://www.mindspring.com/~gwil/statoids.html> to get an idea of what's there. When I say "modestly", I mean that Paul Eggert's existing site at <http://www.twinsun.com/tz/tz-link.htm> would be a much more logical choice if Paul wants to take on this responsibility. I could set aside about four megabytes for time zone info. As a proof of my bona fides, I've contributed quite a bit of IATA time zone data to Paul Eggert since about 1996. By the way, I've resolved to keep my Web site as noncommercial as possible. As I see it, the tz Web site would be edited in the same way as the tz archive. A moderator (presumably the webmaster) would try to achieve a consensus among the contributors, and would then post the results. Yours, Gwillim Law

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What's in a name?
by Oscar van Vlijmen Feb. 8, 2000

Feb. 8, 2000

About the naming of the TZ timezone database. Let's not forget the main issue. The program and data files themselves should not be renamed. Computer programs could have dependencies by name and computer users are accustomed to certain commands, command-line parameters etcetera. The main issue was: more visible webpresentation. ADO asked Jan. 11 if it wouldn't be useful to merge the tzcode & tzdata. I replied Jan. 11 with amongst other suggestions: "An even more useful suggestion would be to place the WWW.htm file in the directory ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/ Why don't you advocate your/our work through a web page? Submit this page to several search engines, I would suggest." The fist step has been made; cf.: http://www.twinsun.com/tz/tz-link.htm Let's think now about even more impact on the web. Finding a catchy or unique name of the stuff is only a small part of this undertaking. Oscar van Vlijmen 2000-02-08

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Wachamacallit again
by Oscar van Vlijmen Feb. 8, 2000

Feb. 8, 2000

In reply to the reply from Paul Hill: > I thought it already had a name. It is named after how it is seen on > a Unix system. As http://www.twinsun.com/tz/tz-link.htm says in the > opening paragraph it is "often called zoneinfo", but that doesn't stop > it from being renamed. AltaVista gives 8246 hits when looking for 'zoneinfo'. It is probably wise to rename the database or the web presentation of it, if you want to get a reasonable high ranking and findability. Oscar van Vlijmen 2000-02-07

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Whachamacallit
by Oscar van Vlijmen Feb. 7, 2000

Feb. 7, 2000

Indeed, Eric Ulevik: a catching name for the TZ database seems useful. AltaVista gives however 29 hits with 'tzdb', half of which are Chinese pages and probably due to a Tzdb site (http://202.96.137.66/dzbk/tzdb/tzdb.htm) AltaVista gives 57 hits with 'Olson database', mostly due to RFC 2445 copies. AltaVista gives 174 hits with 'timezone-database'. AltaVista gives no hits with tz-database. Probably tz-database is a useful name. The tz-link.htm webpage should get at least two META tags, describing the contents in order to get registered correctly with most search engines; like this: <meta name="description" content="....."> <meta name="keywords" content="....."> Regards, Oscar van Vlijmen 2000-02-07

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Reference for tz?
by Joseph S. Myers Feb. 5, 2000

Feb. 5, 2000

The recent appearence of a new way to refer to the tz database - `government database' - caused me to wonder: is there any reference that is appropriate to cite when referring to the tz code and data? That is: since there isn't anything much in the way of a web page for the project, has there ever been any form of publication (academic paper, memo, ...), even a long time ago, describing the project/code/data? -- Joseph S. Myers jsm28(a)cam.ac.uk

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Re: New Mail List - timezones.external@software.com
by Paul Eggert Feb. 4, 2000

Feb. 4, 2000

From: Doug Royer [SMTP:doug@home.royer.com] Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2000 6:47 PM The timezones.external(a)software.com list is for public discussion of timezone information. How does that mailing list's charter differ from that of tz(a)elsie.nci.nih.gov, which is a list for public discussion of time zone information that has been in use since 1986? I visited www.software.com, but found no discussion of the new list. How does one join, or view its message archive? IANA as part of the IETF is looking into administrating the names of world wide time zones. How and why will this administration differ from the process already in place for the existing time zone database? 1) Port the government database and 'zic' (Zone Information Compiler) to other OS's and have it also provide the data in VTIMEZONE format. Most UNIX's use the government database format and the zic compiler (man zic). On 1998-07-16 Antoine Leca <Antoine.Leca(a)renault.fr> wrote that he was implementing (1); you might ask him how far he got. 2) Convert the government database into VTIMEZONE records for IANA to administer. Isn't conversion automatic? If so, why would two databases need to be administered separately? One database should be generated automatically from the other. And if someone want to volunteer - make a converter to go from VTIMEZONE format to zic input format to keep the databases in sync. Why would this be necessary, if conversion is automatic? FYI, here is a brief summary of existing sources for time zone data: http://www.twinsun.com/tz/tz-link.htm And here is a copy of the tz mailing list archive: ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzarchive.gz

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Re: New Mail List - timezones.external@software.com
by Doug Royer Feb. 4, 2000

Feb. 4, 2000

It is very important that when scheduling across timezones that users across those time zones use the same time zone definitions. FYI: The biggest OS and application vendors on Microsoft and UNIX have applications out -now- that understand VTIMEZONE. This includes Outlook, Lotus Notes, Netscape Calendar, Sun, and the list goes on. Oracle is active as are other database vendors. iCalendar and VTIMEZONE have been in the works for years. There are also many other vendors coming up now on the internet that are supporting this format. It would be a little less critical if the data was a month or two out of date. Each side if using VTIMEZONE, would know when it was going to happen. I could write a batch job that woke up once a week to see if the Olson database had changed, if it had, run the converter to VTIMEZONE and send IANA email. I think that IANA could also do this without my help. -Doug > From: CHancuff(a)aol.com > Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2000 14:18:03 EST > > In a message dated 2/4/00 9:48:42 AM Eastern Standard Time, > Markus.Kuhn(a)cl.cam.ac.uk writes: > > > It is much less likely that the respective countries will report > > timezone changes directly to IANA officially. > > I may be the very least qualified on this mailing list to comment > (since the only other time I've posted concerned my intense > interest in discovering the time zone observed by an island > which spends 6 months/year underwater) but ... > > I can see the advantage of having a web presence to which > reports, rumors, and hearsay can also be reported, then brought > to this list for scrutiny. Perhaps a form page, where such things > can be entered. > > I'm trying to imagine the "signal to noise" ratio of a central > reporting venue like this one, but I can't. It might be worth a try. > > Cliff Hancuff > www.ClearDaySoftware.com -Doug ------------------------------------------------------------------- Doug(a)Royer.COM http://royer.com/People/Doug Text Pager: pager(a)Royer.com 801 W. El Camino #131 Mountain View, CA 94040 Ham Radio: N6AAW, Aviation: PP-ASEL

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Re: New Mail List - timezones.external@software.com
by CHancuff＠aol.com Feb. 4, 2000

Feb. 4, 2000

In a message dated 2/4/00 9:48:42 AM Eastern Standard Time, Markus.Kuhn(a)cl.cam.ac.uk writes: > It is much less likely that the respective countries will report > timezone changes directly to IANA officially. I may be the very least qualified on this mailing list to comment (since the only other time I've posted concerned my intense interest in discovering the time zone observed by an island which spends 6 months/year underwater) but ... I can see the advantage of having a web presence to which reports, rumors, and hearsay can also be reported, then brought to this list for scrutiny. Perhaps a form page, where such things can be entered. I'm trying to imagine the "signal to noise" ratio of a central reporting venue like this one, but I can't. It might be worth a try. Cliff Hancuff www.ClearDaySoftware.com

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Re: New Mail List - timezones.external@software.com
by Doug Royer Feb. 4, 2000

Feb. 4, 2000

> Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2000 18:22:20 +0000 > From: Markus Kuhn <Markus.Kuhn(a)cl.cam.ac.uk> > > .. > > The basic idea seemed to have been quite agreeable, but in the end there > simply wasn't anyone volunteering to handle the bureaucracy necessary to > set up such a small institution. If two or three industrial sponsors > would come forward to cover the in the end surely quite marginal running > costs of such a small organization, I am sure it would be possible to > set up a suitable quotable but not quite sueable body. > > Publishing a single-page ISO standard that designates the named > organization to be the keeper of the ISO 16xyz time zone database would > surely sprinkle sufficient official magic around the entire thing to > keep even hard-line bureaucrats happy. Any reason it can't be IANA? We need to have a VTIMEZONE converter. I do NOT think it is important if the source is ZIC format and converted to VTIMEZONE on demand. -Doug ------------------------------------------------------------------- Doug(a)Royer.COM http://royer.com/People/Doug Text Pager: pager(a)Royer.com 801 W. El Camino #131 Mountain View, CA 94040 Ham Radio: N6AAW, Aviation: PP-ASEL

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FW: [Fwd: New Mail List - timezones.external@software.com]
by Olson, Arthur David (NCI) Feb. 4, 2000

Feb. 4, 2000

Note that Doug Royer is not on the time zone mailing list; be sure to direct any replies appropriately. --ado -----Original Message----- From: Doug Royer [SMTP:doug@home.royer.com] Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2000 6:47 PM To: ietf-calendar(a)imc.org; tz(a)elsie.nci.nih.gov Subject: [Fwd: New Mail List - timezones.external(a)software.com] The timezones.external(a)software.com list is for public discussion of timezone information. IANA as part of the IETF is looking into administrating the names of world wide time zones. This list will be an alias of IETF and non-IETF participants interested in porting the 'zic' software and its data format. There are three goals of this list. 1) Port the government database and 'zic' (Zone Information Compiler) to other OS's and have it also provide the data in VTIMEZONE format. Most UNIX's use the government database format and the zic compiler (man zic). 2) Convert the government database into VTIMEZONE records for IANA to administer. 3) Give away the results to the public domain. And if someone want to volunteer - make a converter to go from VTIMEZONE format to zic input format to keep the databases in sync. This list will go away after the above 3 these goals have been met. RFC-2445 defines VTIMEZONE. The government database source, zic source, and other related source is available from: ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub ----------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe, send mail to timezones.external-request(a)software.com with 'subscribe' in the body of the message. ----------------------------------------------------------------- <<Card for Doug Royer>>

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Re: New Mail List - timezones.external@software.com
by Doug Royer Feb. 4, 2000

Feb. 4, 2000

> Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2000 11:28:31 -0500 > From: David Madeo <David.Madeo(a)msdw.com> > I won't speak for Doug, but I believe he intended to leverage the tz > mailing list and the packaged updates, but use the IANA as the > "official" repository for standards to reference. .... Yes - and the new list only purpose is to make the tool that converts from the ZIC format to RFC-2445 format. Then the new list will go away. -Doug ------------------------------------------------------------------- Doug(a)Royer.COM http://royer.com/People/Doug Text Pager: pager(a)Royer.com 801 W. El Camino #131 Mountain View, CA 94040 Ham Radio: N6AAW, Aviation: PP-ASEL

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Re: New Mail List - timezones.external@software.com
by Doug Royer Feb. 4, 2000

Feb. 4, 2000

> To: tz(a)elsie.nci.nih.gov, ietf-calendar(a)imc.org > Cc: Doug Royer <doug(a)home.royer.com> > Subject: Re: New Mail List - timezones.external(a)software.com > X-URL: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ > Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2000 14:47:22 +0000 > From: Markus Kuhn <Markus.Kuhn(a)cl.cam.ac.uk> > > Doug Royer <doug(a)home.royer.com>: > > There are three goals of this list. > > > > 1) Port the government database and 'zic' (Zone Information Compiler) > > to other OS's and have it also provide the data in VTIMEZONE > > format. Most UNIX's use the government database format and the zic > > compiler (man zic). > > > > 2) Convert the government database into VTIMEZONE records for IANA > > to administer. > > > > 3) Give away the results to the public domain. > > There might be a few misunderstandings involved here. First, there is no > "government timezone database". What you see on ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/ > is the collaboration of a number of volunteers (Arthur Olson, Paul > Eggert, et al.), the result of which is commonly referred to as the > public domain "Olson database". The only relation to the US government > is that the group has been using an ftp server of the National Cancer > Institute, which happens to be located in the .gov domain. Thanks - I did not know what to call it :-) IANA has stepped up to doing this on the internet. There is now a international agreed way to represent timezones on the internet. And several large vendors (Microsoft, Sun, DEC, HP, IBM, ...) have agreed to use this format for calendar data. The EUC wants this format, as does the US internet community. > There exists already a well-established mailing list for discussions > on time zones and the maintenance of the Olson database, namely This list is for converting the data into RFC-2445 format, not for the discussion of timezones. We plan to use the Olson database to create the VTIMZONE data. Then IANA will keep the data. Several countries want an 'official' database, and IANA is where it is going to be kept. > tz(a)elsie.nci.nih.gov > > Contact > > tz-request(a)elsie.nci.nih.go > > to join the club. > > Since there is a lot of accumulated expertise on this mailing list, > handing over the administration of the database to IANA seems to be a > rather dubious buerocratic effort. Who at IANA would take over authority > over the database and is really comparably qualified to the current > contributors of the Olson database who have done a splendid job for > the last 15 years? Yes it has, not quite the same job however. We spent about 5 years coming to agreement on a way to represent this information on the internet. IANA is NOT going to be the source of the information. IANA is going to be the official outlet for the information in the agreed on format. > Please understand that IANA is a registration service, while what the > group around Olson is doing is more a detective service that observes > and documents the highly complicated world of national and regional > decisions about time-zone changes in the world. If government X is going > to change its local time zone, it is more likely that the database > maintainer will hear about this from various informers or media reports > around the world, as well as resources such as IATA or CIA. It is much > less likely that the respective countries will report timezone changes > directly to IANA officially. A detective service can provide a more > accurate representation of the real world than a registration service. And I suspect those tasks will remain separate. IANA is going to keep the VTIMEZONE format. It will be the internet standard way to get the data. Two public domain efforts (Java and C++) are being written now to process calendar and scheduling information. And VTIMEZONE will within a year be the official standard format that internet applications will be using to exchange time related information across time zones. > Just dropping the maintenance of the time zone database into the > responsibility of IANA might give them a task they underestimate at the > moment. IANA is going to keep the VTIMEZONE data. *MANY* vendors want an internet ready version of the data. I suspect in the not to distant future there will be timezone servers, where with the help of the tz(a)elsie.nci.nih.gov list and the Olson database companies can get timezone information, applications will have one standard way to exchange information when doing calendaring an scheduling. An internet application can then use an URL, (Possible) example: TZ://www.iana.org/vtimezone/US/Pacific Or maybe (I am not an HTTP expert) something like: TZ://www/iana.mirror.../vtimezone/lat?...,lon=? > If you don't like the current zic format, feel free to add a zic-> > VTIMEZONE format converter to the Olson package. Looks mostly like a > bijective transform to me, except that the zic input files contain a lot > of valuable comments that identify official reference documents. A ZIC -> VTIMEZONE converter is the primary goal of this new list. Once the goals are accomplished, this new list will go away. Again, I don't see the ZIC format going away. > Only if the output of that converter on the regular updates of the Olson > package turns out to be unsatisfactory, I would start worrying about > setting up a parallel bureaucracy and an independent database. I see > really no need for yet another mailing list. It's happening to write data to convert to VTIMEZONE. Then this new list will go away. > > RFC-2445 defines VTIMEZONE. > > BEGIN:VTIMEZONE > TZID:US--Fictitious-Eastern > LAST-MODIFIED:19870101T000000Z > BEGIN:STANDARD > DTSTART:19671029T020000 > RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=-1SU;BYMONTH=10 > TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 > TZOFFSETTO:-0500 > TZNAME:EST > END:STANDARD > BEGIN:DAYLIGHT > DTSTART:19870405T020000 > RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=1SU;BYMONTH=4;UNTIL=19980404T070000Z > TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 > TZOFFSETTO:-0400 > TZNAME:EDT > END:DAYLIGHT > BEGIN:DAYLIGHT > DTSTART:19990424T020000 > RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=-1SU;BYMONTH=4 > TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 > TZOFFSETTO:-0400 > TZNAME:EDT > END:DAYLIGHT > END:VTIMEZONE > > If people really think that this looks that much nicer or easier to > parse for machines and humans ... Please join the IETF mailing list ietf-calendar(a)imc.org . Send requests to join to ietf-calendar-request(a)imc.org . It is already in 'proposed standard' state. It would take a LOT of work to change that format at this time. It can be for technical reasons. If you feel there are some PLEASE comment on the list. -Doug ------------------------------------------------------------------- Doug(a)Royer.COM http://royer.com/People/Doug Text Pager: pager(a)Royer.com 801 W. El Camino #131 Mountain View, CA 94040 Ham Radio: N6AAW, Aviation: PP-ASEL

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[Fwd: New Mail List - timezones.external@software.com]
by Doug Royer Feb. 3, 2000

Feb. 3, 2000

The timezones.external(a)software.com list is for public discussion of timezone information. IANA as part of the IETF is looking into administrating the names of world wide time zones. This list will be an alias of IETF and non-IETF participants interested in porting the 'zic' software and its data format. There are three goals of this list. 1) Port the government database and 'zic' (Zone Information Compiler) to other OS's and have it also provide the data in VTIMEZONE format. Most UNIX's use the government database format and the zic compiler (man zic). 2) Convert the government database into VTIMEZONE records for IANA to administer. 3) Give away the results to the public domain. And if someone want to volunteer - make a converter to go from VTIMEZONE format to zic input format to keep the databases in sync. This list will go away after the above 3 these goals have been met. RFC-2445 defines VTIMEZONE. The government database source, zic source, and other related source is available from: ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub ----------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe, send mail to timezones.external-request(a)software.com with 'subscribe' in the body of the message. -----------------------------------------------------------------

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