From: J Wunsch <j@uriah.heep.sax.de> Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 21:13:04 +0100 (MET) So why don't you value the opinion of the people living here more than the opinion of `foreigners'? I value the opinion of all contributors. In this case, the problem is that some people use `CET' and some use `MET', and the question is which abbreviation to prefer in the tz database. My strongest point is still that you're simply not mighty enough to change the world. The real-world tradition prefers `CET' -- at least, that is what I found when I looked into the issue, and I haven't seen much contrary evidence though I would welcome it. The question was whether to keep the tz database's idiosyncratic `MET/MET DST' abbreviations, or to switch to the real-world abbreviations. I'm sorry to hear that the change is upsetting some users. But the tz database continues to support TZ='MET' for people who prefer the old style. And one is always free to edit the zoneinfo files to output `DNT', `EMI', `EMT', `FWT', `HFH', `HOE', `ITA', `MET', `MEWT', `MEZ', `NFT', `NOR', `SET', `SST', `SWT', or `WUT', all of which I have seen listed as abbreviations for winter time for some locales in that time zone. I'm afraid that questions like these can never be completely resolved to everybody's satisfaction. Perhaps now's the time to start thinking about a system for localizing the time zone abbreviations. It would be nice if this could be done to the tables without breaking existing instances of `zic'. Then e.g. German-speakers could easily see `MEZ'/`MESZ', which are the preferred German abbreviations.