-----Original Message----- From: Daniel C. Sobral [SMTP:dcs@newsguy.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 1999 8:18 AM To: tz@elsie.nci.nih.gov Subject: Time Zones I'd like to point out that what you call "Zone America/Sao_Paulo", the brazilian "legal time", is actually known as _Brasilia_ time zone in Brazil. -- Daniel C. Sobral (8-DCS) dcs@gns.com.br To see you is to sympathize.
From: Daniel C. Sobral [SMTP:dcs@newsguy.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 1999 8:18 AM To: tz@elsie.nci.nih.gov I'd like to point out that what you call "Zone America/Sao_Paulo", the brazilian "legal time", is actually known as _Brasilia_ time zone in Brazil. The Zone labels are largely independent of what people call time time zones; they merely name the most populous location that uses that particular rule set. (It may seem a bit odd at first that the `America/Sao_Paulo' label identifies Brasilia time, but `America/Los_Angeles' identifies Pacific time, so it's just as odd for me. :-) However, it sounds like the abbreviations used in the Brazilian rules are incorrect. These abbreviations, shown below, are purely our invention. I'd like to fix them so that they abbreviate the English translations of the names actually in use in Brazil. # -2:00 FST FDT Fernando de Noronha # -3:00 EST EDT Eastern Brazil # -4:00 WST WDT Western Brazil # -5:00 AST ADT Acre If the people in Brazil call it `Brasilia time', then the abbreviation should be fixed to reflect this. In another message you wrote that people use the Portuguese equivalent of `Brasilia time' and `Brasilia summer time' (the UK style), as opposed to the US style that the tz tables are currently using. So I suppose the abbreviations should be changed from EST and EDT to BRT and BRST (for `Brasilia Time' and `Brasilia Summer Time'). What names do Brazilians use for the time zones other than Brasilia? (Sorry I took so long to answer; I've been swamped.)
Paul, Reinaldo Goulart, a businessman in San Paulo, and active in the railroad sector (thus somewhat knowledgeable about Brazilian "time zones" replied to me e-mail for some information as follows: " It is difficult to answer this apparently simple question. This is because the subject of time zones is currently a matter of dicussion/debate in Brazil. Let's say that "the Brasilia time" is considered the "official time" because Brasilia is the capital city. The other three time zones are called "Brasilia time "minus one" or "plus one" or "plus two". As far as I know there is no such name/designation as "Eastern Time" or "Central Time". The mess is worst during summer when DST is called summer time but some states do not change the time. At present, we do not know how many "time zones", we have.." Regards - Jake Knoppers P.S. Perhaps someone else has a contact in Brasil who may readily have available more info, i.e. the need for a standardizaed systematic approach before getiing into Englsih/Portuguese language names/abbreviation equivalents.
-----Original Message----- From: Paul Eggert [mailto:eggert@twinsun.com] Sent: June 27, 1999 4:00 AM To: dcs@newsguy.com Cc: tz@elsie.nci.nih.gov Subject: Time Zone abbreviations in Brazil
From: Daniel C. Sobral [SMTP:dcs@newsguy.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 1999 8:18 AM To: tz@elsie.nci.nih.gov
I'd like to point out that what you call "Zone America/Sao_Paulo", the brazilian "legal time", is actually known as _Brasilia_ time zone in Brazil.
The Zone labels are largely independent of what people call time time zones; they merely name the most populous location that uses that particular rule set. (It may seem a bit odd at first that the `America/Sao_Paulo' label identifies Brasilia time, but `America/Los_Angeles' identifies Pacific time, so it's just as odd for me. :-)
However, it sounds like the abbreviations used in the Brazilian rules are incorrect. These abbreviations, shown below, are purely our invention. I'd like to fix them so that they abbreviate the English translations of the names actually in use in Brazil.
# -2:00 FST FDT Fernando de Noronha # -3:00 EST EDT Eastern Brazil # -4:00 WST WDT Western Brazil # -5:00 AST ADT Acre
If the people in Brazil call it `Brasilia time', then the abbreviation should be fixed to reflect this. In another message you wrote that people use the Portuguese equivalent of `Brasilia time' and `Brasilia summer time' (the UK style), as opposed to the US style that the tz tables are currently using. So I suppose the abbreviations should be changed from EST and EDT to BRT and BRST (for `Brasilia Time' and `Brasilia Summer Time').
What names do Brazilians use for the time zones other than Brasilia?
(Sorry I took so long to answer; I've been swamped.)
Thanks for your info about Brazilian time zone abbreviations. I'm inclined to change the tz database abbreviations from: std dst -2:00 FST FDT Fernando de Noronha time -3:00 EST EDT Eastern Brazil time -4:00 WST WDT Western Brazil time -5:00 AST ADT Acre time to: std dst -2:00 FNT FNST Fernando de Noronha time -3:00 BRT BRST Brasilia time -4:00 WBT WBST Western Brazil time -5:00 ACT ACST Acre time where `std' denotes standard time and `dst' denotes summer time. The -3:00 row in the new table seems to match existing practice for Brasilia time and Brasilia summer time. I invented the English-language abbreviations, and I also invented the other rows to be consistent with the -3:00 row. I believe that FN and AC are the usual 2-letter abbreviations for Fernando de Noronha and Acre, so the `WB' row is perhaps the most questionable abbreviation. If this seems OK, I'll prepare a full patch along these lines; comments and further suggestions are welcome.
The changes you quoted seems fine. I'm wondering if, perhaps, "Western Brazil time" should be called "Northen (sp?) Brazil Time", since that's the brazilian "region" mostly covered by it (but not inclusively or exclusively), or "Amazon Time" (for which the same comments apply). That is about what I would be recommending, except that I haven't been able to "crack" the "Western Brazil time"... Paul Eggert wrote:
Thanks for your info about Brazilian time zone abbreviations. I'm inclined to change the tz database abbreviations from:
std dst -2:00 FST FDT Fernando de Noronha time -3:00 EST EDT Eastern Brazil time -4:00 WST WDT Western Brazil time -5:00 AST ADT Acre time
to:
std dst -2:00 FNT FNST Fernando de Noronha time -3:00 BRT BRST Brasilia time -4:00 WBT WBST Western Brazil time -5:00 ACT ACST Acre time
where `std' denotes standard time and `dst' denotes summer time.
The -3:00 row in the new table seems to match existing practice for Brasilia time and Brasilia summer time. I invented the English-language abbreviations, and I also invented the other rows to be consistent with the -3:00 row. I believe that FN and AC are the usual 2-letter abbreviations for Fernando de Noronha and Acre, so the `WB' row is perhaps the most questionable abbreviation.
If this seems OK, I'll prepare a full patch along these lines; comments and further suggestions are welcome.
-- Daniel C. Sobral (8-DCS) dcs@newsguy.com dcs@freebsd.org Given infinite time, 100 monkeys could type out the complete works of Shakespeare. Win 98 source code? Eight monkeys, five minutes.
participants (4)
-
Daniel C. Sobral -
Infoman Inc. -
Olson, Arthur David (NCI) -
Paul Eggert