After reading through the mail archive, I'm just as confused as ever, but I withdraw the question. Hopefully, it won't start another war :-) -----Original Message----- From: Andrew Shebanow [mailto:shebanow@placeware.com] Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2001 6:16 PM To: 'tz@elsie.nci.nih.gov' Subject: on australian time zone names and abbreviations OK, I got dragged, bleeding and screaming, into the tar pit of time zone names by one of PlaceWare's Australian customers, who didn't like the fact that Java (1.3.1, at least) formats the time zone for 'Australia/Syndey' as "Eastern Standard Time (New South Wales)", or "EAT" for short. So I did a little research using google, the java sources, and the tz database. Here's what I found that may be relevant, but the bad news is it completely contradicts much of the info in your 'australasia' file. The link http://www.dstc.qut.edu.au/DST/marg/daylight-other.html lists the following as the standard names and abbreviations of time zones in Australia, quoting a source at Australia's National Standards Commission: ------------------------------------- AEST Australian Eastern Standard Time (+10 UTC) AEDT Australian Eastern Daylight Time (+11 UTC) ACST Australian Central Standard Time (+9.5 UTC) ACDT Australian Central Daylight Time (+10.5 UTC) AWST Australian Western Standard Time (+8 UTC) Note: AWDT Australian Western Daylight Time (+9 UTC) is a standard abbreviation, but as there is no daylight saving in the Australian western time zone, it is not used. Are the above abbreviations correct? Here is what the Australian National Standards Commission has said: From: Richard Brittain Sent: Tuesday, 19 December 2000 2:46 PM To: Margaret Turner Subject: RE: Australian Time Zone Abbreviations Margaret - The abbreviations that you propose to use are correct and in fact originated from the Post Master Generals Department (PMGs) some decades ago - the 1960s I believe. There is an AWDT even though it has not been in use for some years so it should appear in any list that claims to be comprehensive. Dr Richard Brittain Executive Officer, Legal Metrology National Standards Commission North Ryde, Sydney. Ph: +61 2 98883922. -------------------------------------- Note that the web page in question is linked to directly by one of the first reference pages listed in your notes section, http://www.dstc.qut.edu.au/DST/marg/daylight.html, under the topic "What are the abbreviations for Australian Time Zones?". Note also the use of "daylight time", not "summer time", contradicting John Mackin's note of 1991-03-06. Now, I'm in no position to judge what the correct official names are, but I thought I'd share my confusion over what is and is not correct... Any enlightment you could share would be much appreciated... Andrew Shebanow PlaceWare