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RE: Updated Australian time zone names/strings
by Olson, Arthur David (NCI) April 22, 2001

April 22, 2001

At the end of this letter there's a blast from the past: results of a 1993 survey of time zone abbreviations. At least at that time, and at least in the scope of the survey, use of abbreviations such as "AEST" was very uncommon; this was (at least in part) what motivated the use of abbreviations such as "EST" for Australian time zones. Use of abbreviations such as "AEST" has seemingly become more common; see, for example, http://www.abc.net.au/ra. But as Paul Eggert's recent survey indicates, "EST" still seems to hold sway. I'd conclude that it's appropriate to leave zones such as "Australia/Brisbane" as is to avoid unnecessary change. A possibility would be to add lines such as Zone Australia/CST 9:30 Aus CST Zone Australia/ACST 9:30 Aus ACST Zone Australia/CXT 9:30 Aus CST/CDT Zone Australia/ACXT 9:30 Aus ACST/ACDT to the "australasia" file; this would let folks who wanted specific abbreviations to get them. --ado >From ado Thu Jun 10 20:28:51 1993 Return-Path: <ado> Received: by bossie.nci.nih.gov (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA22772; Thu, 10 Jun 93 20:28:51 EDT Date: Thu, 10 Jun 93 20:28:51 EDT From: ado (Arthur David Olson) Message-Id: <9306110028.AA22772(a)bossie.nci.nih.gov> To: tz Subject: time zone survey Status: RO Attached are results from a casual time zone survey. Last week I ran through the news articles on nih-csl.dcrt.nih.gov (the nntp newsfeed system for elsie.nci.nih.gov) getting the "Date: " and "Message-ID: " line from each article. Article file names were obtained from the news history file to ensure that any cross-posted articles would only be used once. I tossed out data with unzoned time stamps, data without a recognizable domained system name in the Message-ID, and data from ".com" sites. This left 17,912 date/name pairs. I massaged the data into the form... 05210205 (AEST) megalink.apana.org.au 05010053 +0000 compex.e-burg.su ...where the first field gives two digits each of month, day, hour, and minute from the Date, the second field gives the time zone that appeared in the Date, and the third field is the system name from the Message-ID. This data is available in the file ~ftp/pub/zonesurvey on elsie.nci.nih.gov (128.231.16.1). Eighty-nine different zones showed up (sorted alphabetically here): (AEST) +0000 +0001 +0100 +02 +0200 +0300 +0400 +0500 +0530 +0600 +0611 +0700 +0730 +0800 +0930 +1 +1000 +1100 +1200 +1300 +1700 -0000 -0100 -0300 -0400 -0500 -0520 -0600 -0700 -0800 -1 -1000 -1200 -600 ACST ADT AEST AET ARG AST BSC BST CDT CED CEST CET CST DST EDT EDZ EET EMT EST GMT GMT+01 GMT+0200 GMT+1 GMT+12 GMT+1200 GMT+2 IDT IST JST LCL MDT MED MES MEST MESZ MET MEWT MEZ MST NDT NZDT NZST PDT PST SGP TUR TZONE U UT WET WET+0100 WST XDT Y The number of times each zone showed up (sorted by number of times here): 3820 -0400 1925 EDT 1902 -0500 994 EST 919 -0700 913 CDT 748 +0000 690 +0200 664 CST 655 PDT 621 +0100 583 -0600 499 +1000 467 MDT 398 PST 275 +1200 211 BST 170 +0001 153 MET 138 -0800 135 MST 123 +0300 116 CET 98 +0800 97 -0300 53 +0400 51 +0930 45 -0100 36 +1300 35 WET 33 -0000 27 UT 23 ACST 22 MEZ 22 NZST 20 +1700 20 GMT+12 17 IDT 16 TUR 14 MESZ 9 +02 8 MEST 8 WET+0100 7 +0600 7 CED 7 CEST 7 LCL 6 AET 6 DST 6 EET 6 EMT 5 AST 5 GMT 5 GMT+01 5 GMT+0200 5 U 4 -1000 4 IST 3 +0700 3 +1100 3 -0520 3 -1200 3 -600 3 EDZ 3 TZONE 3 Y 2 ADT 2 ARG 2 BSC 2 GMT+1200 2 MED 2 MES 2 SGP 1 (AEST) 1 +0500 1 +0530 1 +0611 1 +0730 1 +1 1 -1 1 AEST 1 GMT+1 1 GMT+2 1 JST 1 MEWT 1 NDT 1 NZDT 1 WST 1 XDT Aside from the 51 "+0930" articles from Australia, only four "oddball" numeric time zones show up, and each of them only shows up from one system (the Date and system name from the original data are shown here): 3 -0520 Wed, 2 Jun 93 22:22:00 -0520 freddy.ampr.ab.ca Thu, 3 Jun 93 20:08:00 -0520 freddy.ampr.ab.ca Sat, 5 Jun 93 16:05:00 -0520 freddy.ampr.ab.ca 1 +0530 1 Jun 93 15:30:55 +0530 imtech.ernet.in 1 +0611 Wed, 02 Jun 93 16:08:33 +0611 trashcan.hacktic.nl 1 +0730 6 Jun 1993 08:25:56 +0730 news.Colorado.EDU Time zone abbrevations that show up in tzdata93c.tar.Z files: ADT Atlantic Daylight Time AST Atlantic Standard Time BST British Standard Time CDT Central Daylight Time CET Central European Time CST Central Standard Time EDT Eastern Daylight Time EET Eastern European Time EST Eastern Standard Time IDT Israeli Daylight Time IST Israeli Standard Time JST Japanese Standard Time MDT Mountain Daylight Time MET Middle European Time MST Mountain Standard Time NZDT New Zealand Daylight Time NZST New Zealand Standard Time PDT Pacific Daylight Time PST Pacific Standard Time WET Western European Time WST Western Standard Time Time zone abbreviations that are fairly clear are: (AEST) Australian Eastern Standard Time (used only by one system) Fri, 21 May 93 02:05:36 (AEST) megalink.apana.org.au ACST Australian Central Standard Time 21 May 93 13:18:16 ACST state.systems.sa.gov.au Tue, 25 May 93 13:27:42 ACST cola.pax.tpa.com.au ... 4 Jun 93 00:47:42 ACST state.systems.sa.gov.au Sun, 06 Jun 93 19:13:17 ACST cola.pax.tpa.com.au AEST Australian Eastern Standard Time Fri, 04 Jun 93 21:47:10 AEST ese.escape.brisnet.org.au AET Australian Eastern Time (used only by one system) 10 May 93 08:50:04 AET licre.ludwig.edu.au 27 May 93 19:00:11 AET licre.ludwig.edu.au 28 May 93 12:46:13 AET licre.ludwig.edu.au 1 Jun 93 08:46:51 AET licre.ludwig.edu.au 1 Jun 93 09:02:16 AET licre.ludwig.edu.au 7 Jun 93 14:52:39 AET licre.ludwig.edu.au CED Central European Daylight 28 Apr 93 21:00:06 CED alphanet.alphanet.ch 27 May 93 22:53:59 CED sourcery.han.de 28 May 93 18:36:06 CED sourcery.han.de 1 Jun 93 22:16:54 CED sourcery.han.de 1 Jun 93 22:22:52 CED sourcery.han.de 1 Jun 93 22:45:24 CED sourcery.han.de 2 Jun 93 21:05:10 CED sourcery.han.de CEST Central European Standard Time Tue, 25 May 93 07:26:34 CEST obula.nbg.sub.org Tue, 25 May 93 15:58:02 CEST obula.nbg.sub.org Wed, 26 May 93 12:46:27 CEST obula.nbg.sub.org Tue, 01 Jun 93 11:18:35 CEST obula.nbg.sub.org Wed, 02 Jun 93 08:42:25 CEST obula.nbg.sub.org Fri, 04 Jun 1993 17:45:26 CEST oktagon.rd.sub.org Sun, 06 Jun 93 20:44:27 CEST scrum.greenie.muc.de MED Middle European Daylight (used only by one system) 3 Jun 93 00:17:24 MED lifestyle.rhein-main.de 6 Jun 93 12:27:48 MED lifestyle.rhein-main.de MES Middle European Standard (used only by one system) Sat, 22 May 93 12:46:44 MES wolferts.ka.sub.org Sun, 06 Jun 93 15:05:50 MES wolferts.ka.sub.org MESZ Middle European Standard Zone Tue, 25 May 1993 17:49:06 MESZ email.tuwien.ac.at Wed, 26 May 1993 12:12:26 MESZ gwdu14.gwdg.de Wed, 26 May 93 14:03:58 MESZ lbl.gov Fri, 28 May 1993 00:02:42 MESZ nasim.sta.sub.org Fri, 28 May 1993 00:03:34 MESZ nasim.sta.sub.org Fri, 28 May 1993 00:04:26 MESZ nasim.sta.sub.org Fri, 28 May 1993 00:12:50 MESZ nasim.sta.sub.org Fri, 28 May 1993 00:13:56 MESZ nasim.sta.sub.org Fri, 28 May 1993 00:15:10 MESZ nasim.sta.sub.org Sat, 29 May 1993 01:30:40 MESZ nasim.sta.sub.org Tue, 01 Jun 1993 00:46:06 MESZ nasim.sta.sub.org Thu, 03 Jun 93 10:48:04 MESZ aie.wu-wien.ac.at Fri, 4 Jun 93 10:56:33 MESZ exaib.wu-wien.ac.at Fri, 4 Jun 93 11:06:41 MESZ exaib.wu-wien.ac.at MEST Middle European Standard Time Tue, 25 May 93 12:45:47 MEST xivic.bo.open.de Tue, 25 May 93 14:20:53 MEST xivic.bo.open.de Tue, 25 May 93 14:48:22 MEST xivic.bo.open.de Wed, 26 May 93 23:22:22 MEST joker.wes.open.de Sat, 29 May 1993 18:22:55 MEST netmbx.netmbx.de Sat, 29 May 1993 18:21:07 MEST netmbx.netmbx.de Sun, 30 May 1993 12:57:21 MEST netmbx.netmbx.de Tue, 1 Jun 1993 21:51:09 MEST netmbx.netmbx.de MEZ Middle European Zone (used primarily in Germany) Mon, 10 May 93 20:47:50 MEZ rhrz.uni-bonn.de Wed, 26 May 93 12:59:57 MEZ vm.univie.ac.at ... Sun, 06 Jun 1993 14:32:28 MEZ sartar.toppoint.de Sun, 06 Jun 1993 18:37:50 MEZ sartar.toppoint.de UT Universal Time (used only by one system) 29 May 1993 21:14 UT kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov 31 May 1993 15:40 UT kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov ... 3 Jun 1993 21:36 UT kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov 4 Jun 1993 00:20 UT kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov WET+0100 Western European Time+0100 8 Apr 93 15:00:02 WET+0100 ittpub.nl 1 Jun 93 19:26:08 WET+0100 ittpub.nl 2 Jun 93 16:17:13 WET+0100 ittpub.nl 2 Jun 93 20:24:36 WET+0100 ittpub.nl 4 Jun 93 13:32:33 WET+0100 ittpub.nl 4 Jun 93 13:39:50 WET+0100 ittpub.nl 4 Jun 93 13:47:53 WET+0100 ittpub.nl 4 Jun 93 14:08:22 WET+0100 ittpub.nl Time zone abbreviations that are guesswork are: ARG Argentina? Tue, 25 May 93 12:46:21 ARG satlink.net Thu, 27 May 93 07:36:01 ARG satlink.net BSC ? Tue, 25 May 1993 10:51:05 BSC FINHUTC.HUT.FI Tue, 1 Jun 1993 11:57:00 BSC brfapesp.bitnet DST Daylight Saving Time? Thu, 27 May 93 11:00:24 DST cmrra.ca Thu, 27 May 93 23:31:02 DST cmrra.ca Fri, 28 May 93 17:26:14 DST cmrra.ca Sat, 29 May 93 16:48:42 DST cmrra.ca Sat, 29 May 93 16:54:30 DST cmrra.ca Sun, 30 May 93 14:38:30 DST cmrra.ca EDZ ? Mon, 31 May 93 18:14:42 EDZ wship.nullnet.fi Fri, 04 Jun 93 20:41:41 EDZ swob.nullnet.fi Fri, 04 Jun 93 20:53:45 EDZ swob.nullnet.fi EMT ? 28 Apr 1993 12:08:23 EMT alf.uib.no 29 Apr 1993 11:15:44 EMT alf.uib.no 29 Apr 1993 11:17:15 EMT alf.uib.no 28 May 1993 17:56:54 EMT alf.uib.no 1 Jun 1993 19:43:42 EMT alf.uib.no 3 Jun 1993 18:09:42 EMT alf.uib.no MEWT ? 12 May 93 07:41:03 MEWT mble.philips.be LCL LoCaL time? Tue, 1 Jun 1993 09:18:43 LCL kona.cc.mcgill.ca Wed, 2 Jun 1993 07:48:00 LCL mp.cs.niu.edu Wed, 2 Jun 1993 13:44:00 LCL mp.cs.niu.edu Thu, 3 Jun 1993 09:33:00 LCL oas2-tic.safb.af.mil Thu, 3 Jun 1993 08:25:39 LCL grouse.umesve.maine.edu Fri, 4 Jun 1993 20:09:05 LCL CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU Fri, 4 Jun 1993 20:19:59 LCL CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU NDT ? Tue, 25 May 1993 15:39:29 NDT UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU SGP ? Mon, 31 May 93 15:43:36 SGP uwm.edu Fri, 4 Jun 93 10:20:26 SGP uwm.edu TUR Turkey? Wednesday, 5 May 1993 23:23:11 TUR TRMETU.BITNET Wednesday, 26 May 1993 09:03:58 TUR TRMETU.BITNET Wednesday, 26 May 1993 09:05:39 TUR TRMETU.BITNET Wednesday, 26 May 1993 09:06:26 TUR TRMETU.BITNET Wednesday, 26 May 1993 20:47:38 TUR TRMETU.BITNET Thursday, 27 May 1993 10:15:14 TUR TRMETU.BITNET Thursday, 27 May 1993 12:28:59 TUR TREARN.BITNET Thursday, 27 May 1993 13:20:19 TUR TRMETU.BITNET Thursday, 27 May 1993 15:20:12 TUR TRMETU.BITNET Friday, 28 May 1993 11:01:42 TUR TREARN.BITNET Friday, 28 May 1993 12:53:52 TUR TRMETU.BITNET Sunday, 30 May 1993 12:15:24 TUR TREARN.BITNET Saturday, 29 May 1993 12:46:01 TUR TRMETU.BITNET Monday, 31 May 1993 21:44:49 TUR TRMETU.BITNET Saturday, 5 Jun 1993 18:30:45 TUR TREARN.BITNET Sunday, 6 Jun 1993 13:14:56 TUR TREARN.BITNET TZONE ? Mon, 31 May 1993 05:01:19 TZONE VAXF.COLORADO.EDU Wed, 2 Jun 1993 19:59:49 TZONE carson.u.washington.edu Fri, 4 Jun 1993 09:21:33 TZONE sunburn.uwaterloo.ca XDT ? Tue, 25 May 1993 10:20:55 XDT sfanet.nrl.navy.mil The results make me think there's little prospect of discovering useful time zone information (in particular, time transitions that don't already show up in tzdata93c.tar.Z) from running through news articles; someone with an account on a site that does extensive archiving of news might prove me wrong. --ado

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mail-archive.com for tz list?
by Neal McBurnett April 20, 2001

April 20, 2001

>From what I can see, the only way to access the archives of this tz list is to download a gzipped archive of the whole thing. One simple, attractive alternative would be to use the free services of http://www.mail-archive.com/ who already have over 4000 lists archived. Excerpt from their FAQ: How can I archive a public list? 1.Subscribe archive(a)jab.org to the mailing list. 2.Many lists send either a confirmation request or acknowledgement here. Take care of any confirmations that the list requires. The Mail Archive automatically detects when it receives mail from a new list..... Support for XML/RDF headlines etc is also a cool feature. It is a pleasure to read in the FAQ about their attitude towards spam, and their innovative techniques to dramatically reduce the risk that spammers will take advantage of their on-line archives. Cheers, Neal McBurnett <nealmcb(a)avaya.com> 303-538-4852 Denver http://bcn.boulder.co.us/~neal/ (with GPG/PGP keys) Avaya Inc: http://www.avaya.com/

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Re: List of time zones compliant both for Linux, Solaris 5.8, OSF1 Tru64, HP-UX
by francois reygagne April 20, 2001

April 20, 2001

Greg Black wrote: > | All the systems that you mention should read the Olson data files > | as-is; you shouldn't need to link any of the tz code. > > Which leads to the question: under what circumstances would you > want to use the Olson tz code? I need to convert a local time attached to a Country, State/City into a GMT time for each incoming request received by our server. This must work in a multithreaded architecture, i.e; we have a fixed number of threads which process the incoming request. Do you have a list of countries, states for the US, cities which matches the timezone list. The only localisation info I receive from the client request is the Country, State or County if exist City and Longitude/Latitude. My idea is to make an exhaustive list of all the countries of the planet associated to the time zone. Each country is a polygon located by two points(X=Longitude, Y=Latitude). Forn the France, it will be simple France/Paris but for the US, the timezone matches a set of states and I need the association table which gives for a given timezone the list of states, cities ... North West North East X1, Y1 -----------------------! ! ! ! ! !----------------------------X2, Y2 South West South East -- François REYGAGNE. Software Architect. opt[e]way S.A., 2881 route des Crêtes, BP308 06906 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, FRANCE tél: +33 (0)4 92 95 27 01 http://www.opteway.com -- François REYGAGNE. Software Architect. opt[e]way S.A., 2881 route des Crêtes, BP308 06906 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, FRANCE tél: +33 (0)4 92 95 27 01 http://www.opteway.com

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Re: Add zic.sh into tzdata to invoke zic compile all time zone data
by francois reygagne April 20, 2001

April 20, 2001

Paul Eggert wrote: > > Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2001 10:59:43 +0200 > > From: francois reygagne <freygagne(a)opteway.com> > > > I find it very convenient to use it since I don't have to recall the > > line command to type. > > Doesn't "make zones" do what you want? I have two subdirectories like in your ftp site tzdata and tzcode and the command make zones submitted from tzcode directory failed as follow/ tzcode2001a]$ make zones make: *** No rule to make target `africa', needed by `posix_only'. Stop. cheers -- François REYGAGNE. Software Architect. opt[e]way S.A., 2881 route des Crêtes, BP308 06906 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, FRANCE tél: +33 (0)4 92 95 27 01 http://www.opteway.com

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Remove from mailing list
by Keyguide April 20, 2001

April 20, 2001

Please cancel my name from your mailing lists

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FW: Info on timechanges in Sweden
by Olson, Arthur David (NCI) April 20, 2001

April 20, 2001

Ivan Nilsson is not on the time zone mailing list; direct replies appropriately. --ado -----Original Message----- From: Ivan Nilsson [mailto:ivan@spica-it.com] Sent: Friday, April 13, 2001 6:46 PM To: tz(a)elsie.nci.nih.gov Subject: Info on timechanges in Sweden I'd like to make a contribution to the timechanges in Sweden found in your timezone file. Sweden has never had the Mean Time of Stockholm as national Standard Time, and never switched to/from summertime at 1:00 from 1980 onwards. The correct entries are: GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] 1:12:12 LMT 1879 (1878 May 31 is incorrect) 1:00:14 SEST 1900 (change at 01:00 is incorrect) # Sweden Standard Time 1:00:00 CET 1916 May 14 23:00 (April 14 is incorrect) 1:00:00 1:00 CEST 1916 I'm not sure about this, see explanation below. All of the above is stated in lawtexts (unfortunately I have only found them in Swedish). The law "Svensk författningssamling 1878, no 14" about standard time in 1879: >From the beginning of 1879 (that is January 1 0:00) the time for all places in the country is "the mean solar time for the meridian at three degrees, or twelve minutes of time, to the west of the meridian of the Observatory of Stockholm". The law is dated 31 May 1878. The observatory at that time had the meridian 18 degrees 03' 30" eastern longitude = 1 hour 12 minutes 14 seconds in time. Less 12 minutes give the national standard time as 1 hour 00 minutes 14 seconds ahead of GMT. (The observatory is in the centre of Stockholm.) I suggest SEST rather than SST or ST because other time standards already use them (SE = the internation code for Sweden). About the beginning of CET in Sweden. The lawtext ("Svensk författningssamling 1899, no 44") states, that "from the beginning of 1900... ... the same as the mean solar time for the meridian at the distance of one hour of time from the meridian of the English observatory at Greenwich, or at 12 minutes 14 seconds to the west from the meridan of the Observatory of Stockholm". The law is dated 16 June 1899. In short: At 0:00:00 January 1 1900 the new standard time i Sweden is 1:00:00 ahead of GMT. I have photo copies of these laws. If you like I can scan them and mail them to you. Now the summertimes. 1916: The lawtext ("Svensk författningssamling 1916, no 124") states, that "May 15 1916 is considered to begin one hour earlier". It is pretty obviuos that at 23:00 May 14 the clocks are set to 0:00 May 15 (thus the timezone file is correct). Further the law says, that "September 30 1916 is considered to end one our later". This is a most ambigous statement. One way to interprete this: At 0:00 October 1 the clocks are set back to 23:00 Sept 30. But in practice it appears that the changes somehow involved 1:00 on October 1. A news report I recently found is not clear on what exactly happened except that 1:00 October 1 is involved. The text report about trains standing still for one hour in the night and is written in a way that invistes two interpretations: 1. At 0:00 October 1 the trains stop and stand still for one hour, and then the clock is set to 0:00 summertime October 1 and the trains continue the journey. 2. At 1:00 October 1 the trains stop, the clock is set back to 0:00, and when it again is 1:00 summertime the trains move again. I am sorry I have not been able to get this matter crystal clear. I live close to a university so I hope I will able able to find sometime more useful there. The rules given in the timezone file for the summertimes from 1980 onwards have the correct dates, but I am afraid the times are incorrect. The laws regulating summertime explicitly states that, when summertime begins, the clocks are set forward from 2:00 to 3:00 in the night. When summertime ends, the clocks are set back from 3:00 to 2:00 in the night. So, the time 1:00:00 is in no way involved in the summertime changes in Sweden nowadays. The laws regulating this are available on the site of the Swedish Parliament beginning with 1985 - the laws regulating 1980 - 1984 is not available on the site (to my knowledge they are only available in Swedish): http://www.riksdagen.se/english/work/sfst.asp <http://www.riksdagen.se/english/work/sfst.asp> (type "sommartid" without the quotes in the field "Fritext" and then click the Sök-button). I really appreciate your excellent work compiling all that time information from all around the world. /Ivan Nilsson

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Re: zic.c compilation on OSF Tru64 Works with -std0 option
by francois reygagne April 20, 2001

April 20, 2001

Paul Eggert wrote: > > Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 23:55:34 +0200 > > From: francois reygagne <freygagne(a)opteway.com> > > > cc: Error: zic.c, line 415: In the definition of the function "error", the promoted type of string is incompatible with the type of the corresponding parameter in a prior declaration. (promotmatch) > > It sounds like your compiler is broken. You might try using GCC > instead; it should work. Or you can try compiling with __STDC__ > disabled; there may be an option to tell your compiler to compile > in "K&R mode", where __STDC__ is not defined. I just set into the Makefile of tzcode CFLAGS as bellow using cc compiler on OSF Tru64 and it works. I just recall you I'm working on OSF1 V5.0 1094 alpha : #FOR TRU64 It works CFLAGS= -std0 #FOR TRU64 use cc cc= cc Could you upgrade your Makefile to take into account this update needed to complete successfully the tzcode binary generation for tyhe compaq OSF Tru64. -- François REYGAGNE. Software Architect. opt[e]way S.A., 2881 route des Crêtes, BP308 06906 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, FRANCE tél: +33 (0)4 92 95 27 01 http://www.opteway.com

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FW: time zone browsing tools
by Olson, Arthur David (NCI) April 19, 2001

April 19, 2001

Neal McBurnett is not on the time zone mailing list; direct replies appropriately. --ado -----Original Message----- From: Neal McBurnett [mailto:nealmcb@avaya.com] Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2001 5:16 PM To: tz(a)elsie.nci.nih.gov Subject: time zone browsing tools I found tzselect in tzcode, and it is very handy, along with the data files that it uses. But I don't see any tools that use the latitude/longitude info in the zone.tab file. Surely after putting all the effort to gather the info, someone has something to use it. What am I missing? I'm also looking for a tool to use the historical data. tzconvert.cgi is very nice, but it suffers from the Unix epochal restrictions and doesn't work before 1970 or after about 2037. Is there any other software that can handle other dates? Perhaps a little Java app? Cheers, Neal McBurnett <neal(a)bcn.boulder.co.us> 303-538-4852 http://bcn.boulder.co.us/~neal/ (with GPG/PGP keys) Avaya Inc: http://www.avaya.com/

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time zone browsing tools
by Neal McBurnett April 19, 2001

April 19, 2001

I found tzselect in tzcode, and it is very handy, along with the data files that it uses. But I don't see any tools that use the latitude/longitude info in the zone.tab file. Surely after putting all the effort to gather the info, someone has something to use it. What am I missing? I'm also looking for a tool to use the historical data. tzconvert.cgi is very nice, but it suffers from the Unix epochal restrictions and doesn't work before 1970 or after about 2037. Is there any other software that can handle other dates? Perhaps a little Java app? Cheers, Neal McBurnett <neal(a)bcn.boulder.co.us> 303-538-4852 http://bcn.boulder.co.us/~neal/ (with GPG/PGP keys) Avaya Inc: http://www.avaya.com/

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finding tz-link.htm and other documentation....
by Neal McBurnett April 19, 2001

April 19, 2001

Thanks to you all for a great database and set of tools! I found your ftp site pretty easily, but it took a surprisingly long time for me to find the best information, i.e. tz-link.htm, buried in the tzcode.tar.gz. It isn't mentioned directly at the FTP site, in the tzcode README, or anywhere at all in any of the tzdata files. I read all the man pages, etc. and just didn't get to tz-link.htm until I had played on-and-off for a few days. Of course it might have occurred to me that a .htm file would be useful, but the name just didn't grab me. To aid future explorers (especially those without tar, etc), could you keep the latest copy of tz-link.htm on the cannonical ftp site at ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/ and mention it in the tzcode README file? The tzdata database itself never mentions the ftp site at all. It would be helpful to either include a tiny README, or a comment in each tzdata file, to point to the ftp site and tz-link.htm. A README at the ftp site would be handy to indicate what all the other files there are. Finally, tzselect is also a useful solution to a common problem, and should be mentioned in tz-link.htm and the README, I think. Thanks again, Neal McBurnett <nealmcb(a)avaya.com> 303-538-4852 Denver http://bcn.boulder.co.us/~neal/ (with GPG/PGP keys) Avaya Inc: http://www.avaya.com/

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