- tz - lists.iana.org

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

July 19, 1997

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

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

July 16, 1997

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

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

July 14, 1997

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

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

July 12, 1997

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

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suggested improvements for C9x `New formats for strftime()' (N733)
by Paul Eggert July 9, 1997

July 9, 1997

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

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

July 7, 1997

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

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Hong Kong
by Garrett Wollman June 30, 1997

June 30, 1997

Someone on the NTP newsgroup pointed out that China uses a single time zone for the entire country. Does anyone out there on this list know whether Hong Kong will be allowed to keep its current timezone after the takeover? -GAWollman -- Garrett A. Wollman | O Siem / We are all family / O Siem / We're all the same wollman(a)lcs.mit.edu | O Siem / The fires of freedom Opinions not those of| Dance in the burning flame MIT, LCS, CRS, or NSA| - Susan Aglukark and Chad Irschick

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ISO 8601 and the horrible "T"
by Misha Wolf June 27, 1997

June 27, 1997

Stu Weibel has given me permission to quote from his private mail: > Where you have YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm-hh:mm, is it possible to interpose a > seperator other than T that makes it clearer to the human eye where > the date ends and Time begins? I suspect the answer to this is that > such a separator would knock the profile out of whack with 8601, but > I thought I'd ask anyhow. The "T" is, I think, the most despised aspect of the ISO 8601 standard but I think we're stuck with it. Some relevant quotes from the standard: [T] is used as a time designator to indicate the start of the representation of the time of day in combined date and time of day expressions; The space character shall not be used in the representations. The only suggestion I have seen for getting rid of the "T" is a kind of trick: We say that we are representing not a "combined date and time" but rather a separate date and a time. We then place them next to each other, separated by our favourite character. If "*" represents our favourite character, we get: 1994-11-05*08:15:30-05:00 instead of: 1994-11-05T08:15:30-05:00 The problem with this solution is precisely that it is a trick. In reality, we are dealing with a single date-with-time and it confuses things to pretend that we're not. Also, there must be lots of software out there which is ISO 8601-conformant and would choke on our favourite character. I suggest we decide that this stuff isn't primarily for human consumption and make use of it, warts and all. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Misha Wolf Email: misha.wolf(a)reuters.com 85 Fleet Street Standards Manager Voice: +44 171 542 6722 London EC4P 4AJ Reuters Limited Fax : +44 171 542 8314 UK ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender specifically states them to be the views of Reuters Ltd.

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Atlantic Monthly coverage of 2000/2001
by ado June 26, 1997

June 26, 1997

See http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97jul/preview.htm for a very brief blurb on the magazine's article entitled "Zero" regarding when the millenium comes; see the magazine itself for details. Your correspondent was disappointed that there was no replay of the joke from Saul Bass's film "Why Man Creates:" First cartoon charcter: I've discovered the zero. Second cartoon character: What? First cartoon character: Nothing, nothing. --ado

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Re: Draft profile of ISO 8601
by Misha Wolf June 26, 1997

June 26, 1997

Pete Ciuffetti has given me permission to quote his private mail: > In your levels of granularity, what do you think about allowing year-only, > "YYYY" and year-month "YYYY-MM". This would help solve a need I perceive > in our database design at SilverPlatter. Most of our records are > bibliographic and they specify the date of publication for some described > item like a book or journal. Typically this is just a year, like "1997" or > it is a year and month, "Feb 1997", sometimes a day is specified. > > In my metadata, I'd like to store whatever granularity that makes sense for > the published item and I would like all the dates to conform to a standard. > But no standard seems to consider these broader levels of granularity. ISO 8601 does. I would be very happy to add these options to the profile. > Also, in these broad levels for comparison purposes, I suggest implied > values would be 01 for an unspecified month, and 01 for an unspecified day. For the moment, I have backed away from suggesting how dates of differing granularities be compared, as it is contentious. > Regards, > Pete Ciuffetti > SilverPlatter ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Misha Wolf Email: misha.wolf(a)reuters.com 85 Fleet Street Standards Manager Voice: +44 171 542 6722 London EC4P 4AJ Reuters Limited Fax : +44 171 542 8314 UK ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender specifically states them to be the views of Reuters Ltd.

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