Time zones made front-page news in today's _Wall Street Journal_, which reports that various countries in the Pacific are jockeying to be the first to welcome the 21st century, since this is rumored to be good for the tourist trade. So far, Kiribati has been the only one to officially change its clocks (see below) but we might see other changes in the future. The most extreme case is a threat by Cuba to move its clocks ahead 24 hours! Also, the stated rule for picking locations: # Use the most populous among locations in a country's time zone, # e.g. prefer `Shanghai' to `Beijing'. Among locations with # similar populations, pick the best-known location, # e.g. prefer `Rome' to `Milan'. suggests that Asia/Jerusalem is a better name choice than Asia/Tel_Aviv. Which location has the higher population depends on how you're counting (city limits? or metropolitan area?) and in the case of similar populations, Jerusalem should be chosen since it's better-known. Asia/Tel_Aviv should be retained for backward compatibility, of course. Here is a proposed patch. =================================================================== RCS file: RCS/australasia,v retrieving revision 1995.13 retrieving revision 1995.13.1.1 diff -c -r1995.13 -r1995.13.1.1 *** australasia 1995/12/21 17:18:27 1995.13 --- australasia 1996/01/22 21:06:45 1995.13.1.1 *************** *** 208,222 **** # uninhabited # Kiribati # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Pacific/Tarawa 11:32:04 - LMT 1901 # Bairiki 12:00 - NZST Zone Pacific/Enderbury -11:24:20 - LMT 1901 -12:00 - KJT 1979 Oct ! -11:00 - SST Zone Pacific/Kiritimati -10:29:20 - LMT 1901 -10:40 - LIT 1979 Oct # Line Is Time ! -10:00 - THT # N Mariana Is # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] --- 208,228 ---- # uninhabited # Kiribati + # From Paul Eggert (1996-01-22): + # Today's _Wall Street Journal_ (page 1) reports that Kiribati + # ``declared it the same day throught the country as of Jan. 1, 1995'' + # as part of the competition to be first into the 21st century. # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Pacific/Tarawa 11:32:04 - LMT 1901 # Bairiki 12:00 - NZST Zone Pacific/Enderbury -11:24:20 - LMT 1901 -12:00 - KJT 1979 Oct ! -11:00 - SST 1995 ! 13:00 - TGT Zone Pacific/Kiritimati -10:29:20 - LMT 1901 -10:40 - LIT 1979 Oct # Line Is Time ! -10:00 - THT 1995 ! 14:00 - KRT # N Mariana Is # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] *************** *** 362,367 **** --- 368,377 ---- -10:00 - THT # Tonga + # From Paul Eggert (1996-01-22): + # Today's _Wall Street Journal_ (page 1) reports that ``Tonga has been plotting + # to sneak ahead of [New Zealanders] by introducing daylight-saving time.'' + # But since Kiribati has moved the Date Line it's not clear what Tonga will do. # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Pacific/Tongatapu 12:19:20 - LMT 1901 12:20 - TMT 1968 Oct *************** *** 403,409 **** # go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to # tz@elsie.nci.nih.gov for general use in the future). ! # From Paul Eggert <eggert@twinsun.com> (August 18, 1994): # A good source for time zone historical data outside the U.S. is # Thomas G. Shanks, The International Atlas (3rd edition), # San Diego: ACS Publications, Inc. (1991). --- 413,419 ---- # go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to # tz@elsie.nci.nih.gov for general use in the future). ! # From Paul Eggert <eggert@twinsun.com> (1996-01-22); # A good source for time zone historical data outside the U.S. is # Thomas G. Shanks, The International Atlas (3rd edition), # San Diego: ACS Publications, Inc. (1991). *************** *** 436,441 **** --- 446,452 ---- # 12:00 NZST NZDT New Zealand # 12:45 CHST CHDT Chatham* # 13:00 TGT Tongatapu* + # 14:00 KRT Kiritimati* # -12:00 KJT Kwajalein (no longer used)* # -11:00 SST Samoa # -10:40 LIT Line Is (no longer used)* =================================================================== RCS file: RCS/asia,v retrieving revision 1996.1 retrieving revision 1996.1.1.1 diff -c -r1996.1 -r1996.1.1.1 *** asia 1996/01/06 14:08:15 1996.1 --- asia 1996/01/22 21:06:45 1996.1.1.1 *************** *** 499,505 **** Rule Zion 1997 1998 - Oct Sun>=14 0:00 0:00 S # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] ! Zone Asia/Tel_Aviv 2:19:04 - LMT 1880 2:21 - JMT 1918 2:00 Zion I%sT --- 499,505 ---- Rule Zion 1997 1998 - Oct Sun>=14 0:00 0:00 S # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] ! Zone Asia/Jerusalem 2:20:56 - LMT 1880 2:21 - JMT 1918 2:00 Zion I%sT =================================================================== RCS file: RCS/backward,v retrieving revision 1995.13 retrieving revision 1995.13.1.1 diff -c -r1995.13 -r1995.13.1.1 *** backward 1995/12/21 17:18:38 1995.13 --- backward 1996/01/22 21:06:45 1995.13.1.1 *************** *** 7,12 **** --- 7,13 ---- Link America/Indianapolis America/Fort_Wayne Link America/Indiana/Knox America/Knox_IN Link America/St_Thomas America/Virgin + Link Asia/Jerusalem Asia/Tel_Aviv Link Australia/Sydney Australia/ACT Link Australia/Sydney Australia/Canberra Link Australia/Lord_Howe Australia/LHI *************** *** 45,51 **** Link Asia/Hong_Kong Hongkong Link Atlantic/Reykjavik Iceland Link Asia/Tehran Iran ! Link Asia/Tel_Aviv Israel Link America/Jamaica Jamaica Link Asia/Tokyo Japan Link Pacific/Kwajalein Kwajalein --- 46,52 ---- Link Asia/Hong_Kong Hongkong Link Atlantic/Reykjavik Iceland Link Asia/Tehran Iran ! Link Asia/Jerusalem Israel Link America/Jamaica Jamaica Link Asia/Tokyo Japan Link Pacific/Kwajalein Kwajalein