On 4 Jun 2005, at 01:56, Mark Davis wrote:
BTW, I regenerated the timezone localizations, based on the latest CLDR 1.3 data. See
http://www.unicode.org/cldr//data/dropbox/timezones/
We are still not complete, but are making progress.
Unfortunately, some of the progress is in the wrong direction. :-) The en_timezones.html file contains this for the UK (Europe/London): --- 348 United Kingdom Europe/London GB-Eire; GB generic standard daylight gmt GMT-00:00/-01:00 GMT-00:00 GMT-01:00 short BT BST BDT long British Time British Standard Time British Daylight Time --- The short and long rows are completely wrong. We don't use the name British Daylight Time or the abbreviation BDT for our daylight saving time (and we don't use the term daylight saving either). We call the concept summer time, named British Summer Time, with abbreviation BST. We use Greenwich Mean Time as the name for our standard time, abbreviated as GMT. We did use the name British Standard Time for an ill-fated experiment between 1968 and 1972 where we had the clocks an hour in advance of GMT all year round. This name was no doubt chosen so the same BST abbreviation could be used for what was in effect summer time all year. The BST abbreviation for standard time is the biggest problem as it gives the wrong meaning for an abbreviation in common use, which will only cause confustion. I've never heard the name British Time used for `generic' time, whatever that might be; and if you mention BT to the average UK person they will think of our phone company: British Telecommunications. Some URLs to back this up: <http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/bankhol.htm> A UK government site with bank holiday dates, and Timetable for British Summer Time link near the bottom. <http://www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/nav.00500300f00h> A National Maritime Museum (home of the Greenwich Observatory) page with a bit about summer time near the bottom, showing use of GMT and BST. <http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199798/ldhansrd/vo970611/ text/70611-10.htm#70611-10_head0> The second reading debate on a Bill introduced by Lord Tanlaw which would have made UTC the UK's legal time. The second paragraph of column 965 gives the basis for GMT as the UK's legal time. The Bill failed. And of course, <http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~jsm28/british-time/>, Joseph Myers' page with all the gory UK legal detail. I noticed the BDT abbreviation in the OS X 10.4 (Tiger) Mail program and submitted a bug report to Apple (4078227). I guess they got it from this CLDR data. Where did these names and abbreviations come from? How can they get fixed? Peter Ilieve peter@aldie.co.uk