From: Daniel C. Sobral [SMTP:dcs@newsguy.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 1999 8:18 AM To: tz@elsie.nci.nih.gov I'd like to point out that what you call "Zone America/Sao_Paulo", the brazilian "legal time", is actually known as _Brasilia_ time zone in Brazil. The Zone labels are largely independent of what people call time time zones; they merely name the most populous location that uses that particular rule set. (It may seem a bit odd at first that the `America/Sao_Paulo' label identifies Brasilia time, but `America/Los_Angeles' identifies Pacific time, so it's just as odd for me. :-) However, it sounds like the abbreviations used in the Brazilian rules are incorrect. These abbreviations, shown below, are purely our invention. I'd like to fix them so that they abbreviate the English translations of the names actually in use in Brazil. # -2:00 FST FDT Fernando de Noronha # -3:00 EST EDT Eastern Brazil # -4:00 WST WDT Western Brazil # -5:00 AST ADT Acre If the people in Brazil call it `Brasilia time', then the abbreviation should be fixed to reflect this. In another message you wrote that people use the Portuguese equivalent of `Brasilia time' and `Brasilia summer time' (the UK style), as opposed to the US style that the tz tables are currently using. So I suppose the abbreviations should be changed from EST and EDT to BRT and BRST (for `Brasilia Time' and `Brasilia Summer Time'). What names do Brazilians use for the time zones other than Brasilia? (Sorry I took so long to answer; I've been swamped.)