I'm forwarding this message from Paul Bruin, who is not on the time zone mailing list. Those of you who are on the time zone mailing list should direct replies appropriately. --ado From: BRUIN Paul [mailto:pbruin@miranda.com] Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 11:58 To: tz@lecserver.nci.nih.gov Subject: London (GMT) notation self-conflicts Hello, My company's application servers use the Olson database as a time zone reference. The following listings appear, which I believe are so-named in the Olson database: London (Greenwich Mean Time) Belfast (Greenwich Mean Time) Dublin (Greenwich Mean Time) These notations are correct only in winter, when all three cities are on GMT. But in Summer, these cities are GMT+1. This means that in summer, there is a conflict within the notation. Note that this conflict does not arise for cities outside the United Kingdom. Taking Paris (Central European Time) as an example, Paris time and Central European Time are always the same, irrespective of the extra hour of Daylight Savings offset from GMT in summer. To fix this, "Greenwich Mean Time" should be removed from the notation for London, Belfast and Dublin. It might be replaced by "United Kingdom Time," "British Isles Time" or "British Time." Does this conflicting notation indeed exist in the Olson database and, if so, can it be fixed? Thanks for your help, Paul Bruin pbruin@miranda.com 415-924-8702 (office) 415-706-0442 (cell) 17 Skylark Drive, #39 Larkspur, CA 94939 U.S.A.
Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E] said:
To fix this, "Greenwich Mean Time" should be removed from the notation for London, Belfast and Dublin. It might be replaced by "United Kingdom Time," "British Isles Time" or "British Time."
None of those are terms used in the UK. The first would be unacceptable to the Irish Republic, and the last to the whole of Ireland. The statutory name for the time zone of the UK would appear to be "the time for general purposes in Great Britain" (see the Summer Time Act 1972) and "the time for general purposes in Northern Ireland" (see the Time Act (Northern Ireland) 1924). -- Clive D.W. Feather | Work: <clive@demon.net> | Tel: +44 20 8495 6138 Internet Expert | Home: <clive@davros.org> | Fax: +44 870 051 9937 Demon Internet | WWW: http://www.davros.org | Mobile: +44 7973 377646 THUS plc | |
This newbie would like to take a stab at an answer.
From: BRUIN Paul [mailto:pbruin@miranda.com] Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 11:58 To: tz@lecserver.nci.nih.gov Subject: London (GMT) notation self-conflicts
Hello, My company's application servers use the Olson database as a time zone reference. The following listings appear, which I believe are so-named in the Olson database: London (Greenwich Mean Time) Belfast (Greenwich Mean Time) Dublin (Greenwich Mean Time)
I see London and Dublin, with Belfast a link to London. I'm not aware of the full common names of time zones anywhere in the database, just the abbreviations; so the string, "Greenwich Mean Time", probably comes from the "company's application servers" that the author mentions.
These notations are correct only in winter, when all three cities are on GMT.
Yes.
But in Summer, these cities are GMT+1.
Which is why the summer-time abbreviations are BST and IST, respectively. Maybe the "company's application servers" aren't picking that up. Does that make sense? --Bill Seymour
Bill, That does make sense. I will pass this on within my company. We do indeed have a nomenclature issue in our application server software. Many thanks, Paul -----Original Message----- From: billseymour@gmail.com [mailto:billseymour@gmail.com] On Behalf Of Bill Seymour Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2007 9:04 AM To: tz@elsie.nci.nih.gov Cc: BRUIN Paul Subject: Re: FW: London (GMT) notation self-conflicts This newbie would like to take a stab at an answer.
From: BRUIN Paul [mailto:pbruin@miranda.com] Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 11:58 To: tz@lecserver.nci.nih.gov Subject: London (GMT) notation self-conflicts
Hello, My company's application servers use the Olson database as a time zone
reference. The following listings appear, which I believe are so-named in the Olson database: London (Greenwich Mean Time) Belfast (Greenwich Mean Time) Dublin (Greenwich Mean Time)
I see London and Dublin, with Belfast a link to London. I'm not aware of the full common names of time zones anywhere in the database, just the abbreviations; so the string, "Greenwich Mean Time", probably comes from the "company's application servers" that the author mentions.
These notations are correct only in winter, when all three cities are
on GMT.
Yes.
But in Summer, these cities are GMT+1.
Which is why the summer-time abbreviations are BST and IST, respectively. Maybe the "company's application servers" aren't picking that up. Does that make sense? --Bill Seymour
Arthur, Thank you for persuing this. The upshot is that this relates to internal nomencature within my company and does not occur in your database. Regards, Paul -----Original Message----- From: Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E] [mailto:olsona@dc37a.nci.nih.gov] Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2007 7:14 AM To: tz@elsie.nci.nih.gov Cc: BRUIN Paul Subject: FW: London (GMT) notation self-conflicts I'm forwarding this message from Paul Bruin, who is not on the time zone mailing list. Those of you who are on the time zone mailing list should direct replies appropriately. --ado From: BRUIN Paul [mailto:pbruin@miranda.com] Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 11:58 To: tz@lecserver.nci.nih.gov Subject: London (GMT) notation self-conflicts Hello, My company's application servers use the Olson database as a time zone reference. The following listings appear, which I believe are so-named in the Olson database: London (Greenwich Mean Time) Belfast (Greenwich Mean Time) Dublin (Greenwich Mean Time) These notations are correct only in winter, when all three cities are on GMT. But in Summer, these cities are GMT+1. This means that in summer, there is a conflict within the notation. Note that this conflict does not arise for cities outside the United Kingdom. Taking Paris (Central European Time) as an example, Paris time and Central European Time are always the same, irrespective of the extra hour of Daylight Savings offset from GMT in summer. To fix this, "Greenwich Mean Time" should be removed from the notation for London, Belfast and Dublin. It might be replaced by "United Kingdom Time," "British Isles Time" or "British Time." Does this conflicting notation indeed exist in the Olson database and, if so, can it be fixed? Thanks for your help, Paul Bruin pbruin@miranda.com 415-924-8702 (office) 415-706-0442 (cell) 17 Skylark Drive, #39 Larkspur, CA 94939 U.S.A.
participants (4)
-
Bill Seymour -
BRUIN Paul -
Clive D.W. Feather -
Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E]