Dumb questions about GMT offset in tm structure

Dumb question #1: what applications use the offset from GMT of local time? (That is, why do we want the offset in the tm structure in the first place?) Dumb question #2: if there's a way to turn tm structures into time_t values, does the ability to do something like offset = time_of_interest - convert_tm_to_gmt(localtime(time_of_interest)); (possibly followed by offset = -offset; depending on what sex you think the offset should be) obviate the need for a GMT offset element in the tm structure? -- UUCP: ..seismo!elsie!ado ARPA: elsie!ado@seismo.ARPA Elsie and Ado are trademarks of Borden, Inc. and Ampex.