On 20/10/12 17:34 , Guy Harris wrote:
On Oct 19, 2012, at 10:50 PM, Mark Tearle <mtearle@tearle.com> wrote:


Unfortunately, neither act (or subsiduary regulations) point to an
accepted abbreviation, and just use the terms "standard time" and
"summer time".

Just out of curiosity, does *any* country designate Official Time Zone Abbreviations(TM) in law?  Not names, but *abbreviations*?

Some quick poking around found

	http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2010-title15/pdf/USCODE-2010-title15-chap6-subchapIX-sec263.pdf

(section 263) specifying time zone names here in the septic tank :-), but it gives names, *not* abbreviations.

Next thing you are going to tell me is that the tz project is coming up with random abbreviations when convenient, like FET!


The NSW Act doesn't specify EST or EDT:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/download.cgi/cgi-bin/download.cgi/download/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/sta1987137.txt
At http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/Lawlink/cru/ll_cru.nsf/pages/cru_daylightsaving it says
" NSW legislation does not specify abbreviations for standard or summer time. EST denotes Eastern Standard Time. Summertime or daylight saving time is commonly expressed as EDST (eastern daylight saving time)"

Going through the various Standard Time Acts, there are also no abbreviations in it.


So....
Consider that there are current issues with the way that the Australian timezones are handled in the TZ data because of its ambiguousness (if such a word exist) with other timezones in the world.
And consider that there are no official abbreviations.
And consider that there is a lot of places on the Internet already where the unambiguous abbreviations are used.


What is stopping the TZ project from using the unambiguous abbreviations so that the people who use the TZ database in Australia or on Australian services don't run into these basic problems anymore?


Edwin