Leaving EST as it is when it can mean Standard or Summer time or Australian Eastern or US Eastern is just propogating ambiguity. Instead of drifting along with an ambiguous consensus, why dont we show some leadership and set an unambigous standard. If the timezone database has global reach, a decision here is going to create a new "consensus". Maybe the large number of Google EST hits is just a result of the current timezone database. If so, all the consensus we're seeing could just be people using what's given to them. Another leadership option is to engage the government bodies listed below and bring them onboard. With a bit of dialog we might be able to agree on an unambiguous standard. -----Original Message----- From: Paul Eggert [mailto:eggert@CS.UCLA.EDU] Sent: Tuesday, 6 January 2009 9:31 AM To: tz@lecserver.nci.nih.gov Cc: Nigel Jones Subject: Re: FW: Australian DST abbreviations causing business problems - still Nigel Jones <nigjones@redhat.com> writes:
I think the main reason you see so many "EST" results in Google is because it's a failed method for looking at this stuff, because it's possible you'll catch AEST, and your likely to catch linux users that refer to the output from 'date' in scripts/text/etc.
Certainly Google searches on this topic need to be viewed with a good deal of salt. That being said, here's another data point. The Google query "WST CST EST site:au" reports about 4,650 matches, almost all of which are about Australian time zones. The corresponding query "AWST ACST AEST site:au" reports 675 matches, again, almost all about Australian time zones. This query indicates that, within Australia, time zone abbreviations without the leading "A" are considerably more popular than abbreviations with the leading "A". In looking through the matches, one can easily find sources to support all sorts of abbreviations, both from the government and from major private organizations. There really does not appear to be a consensus within Australia over what the abbreviations should be. Here are some examples: "Australia has three time zones. These are called Eastern Standard Time (EST), Central Standard Time (CST) and Western Standard Time (WST)--sometimes called Western Australian Time. These zones are sometimes referred to as AEST, ACST and AWST respectively where the prefix refers to Australia. " -- Parliament of Australia, Dept. of Parliamentary Services <http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/RN/2006-07/07rn13.htm> "Within Australia DST across the three time zones is generally denoted by * EDT - Australian Eastern Daylight Time * CDT - Australian Central Daylight Time * WDT - Australian Western Daylight Time " -- Australian Government, Bureau of Meteorology <http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/daysavtm.shtml> "Australian Eastern Standard Time (EST) Australian Central Standard Time (CST) Australian Western Standard Time (WST) Australian Eastern Summer Time (EDT) Australian Central Summer Time (CDT) " -- Australian Government, Geoscience Australia <http://www.ga.gov.au/bin/gazmap_moonrise> "The outage will commence at 2:00 am Eastern Standard Summer Time (ESST) until 3:00 am Eastern Standard Time (EST). " -- Australian Customs Service <http://www.customs.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=5725&t=icsPostList&formMode=s inglePost&postId=105> "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). " -- NSW Attorney General's Department <http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/Lawlink/cru/ll_cru.nsf/pages/cru_daylight saving> "All times in this schedule are in Australian Eastern Standard Time: add 1 hour to get Eastern Summer Time (EST). " -- Australia Telescope National Facility, Parkes Observatory <http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/observing/schedules/old_schedules/oct00 sch_v2.html> -- This message and any attachments are confidential, proprietary, and may be privileged. If this message was misdirected, Barclays Global Investors (BGI) does not waive any confidentiality or privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify us immediately and destroy the message without disclosing its contents to anyone. Any distribution, use or copying of this e-mail or the information it contains by other than an intended recipient is unauthorized. The views and opinions expressed in this e-mail message are the author's own and may not reflect the views and opinions of BGI, unless the author is authorized by BGI to express such views or opinions on its behalf. All email sent to or from this address is subject to electronic storage and review by BGI. Although BGI operates anti-virus programs, it does not accept responsibility for any damage whatsoever caused by viruses being passed.