John Connolly <connolly@zk3.dec.com> writes:

I am tracking down a problem reported by a customer. He indicates that the zoneinfo for South Australia is off by one week.

I have no idea if he is correct or not but I assume he is if he lives there. Is there there a way to check this officially and if it is wrong I would like to see the change made in the right places. The file contains the following rule:

Rule AS 1990 max even Mar Sun>=22 3:00 0 -

He has suggested the rule be changed to:

Rule AS 1990 max even Mar Sun>=15 3:00 0 -

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

ado, Here are five old messages chronicling the Adelaide Festival rule. If Sun, 15 March, 1992 was at +1030 as kre asserts, but yet Sun, 20 March, 1994 was at +0930 as John Connolly's customer seems to assert, then I can only conclude that the actual rule is more complicated than either of those given above. kre's ``2nd last Sunday'' is consistent with those dates, but perhaps his ``the Sunday we pick for this year'' is the real truth. bww ------- Begin Forwarded Message #1 Date: Wed, 11 Mar 92 12:21:42 -0500 (EST) From: Bradley White <bww+@CS.CMU.EDU> Subject: Re: australasia To: Arthur David Olson <ado@ELSIE.NCI.NIH.GOV> Cc: Zone Watchers <tz@ELSIE.NCI.NIH.GOV> I believe ... Rule AS 1991 max - Mar Sun>=1 3:00 0 - ... to be wrong. Recent correspondence with a friend in Adelaide contained the following exchange: Due to the Adelaide Festival, South Australia delays setting back our clocks for a few weeks. ------- End Forwarded Message ------- Begin Forwarded Message #2 Date: Fri, 13 Mar 92 07:49:50 +1000 From: Robert Elz <kre@munnari.oz.au> Subject: Re: australasia To: Bradley White <bww+@CS.CMU.EDU> Cc: Arthur David Olson <ado@ELSIE.nci.nih.gov> I heard that apparently (or at least, it appears that) South Aus will have an extra 3 weeks daylight saving every even numbered year (from 1990). That's when the Adelaide Festival is on... ------- End Forwarded Message ------- Begin Forwarded Message #3 Date: Sat, 14 Mar 92 13:27:30 EST From: ado@elsie.nci.nih.gov (Arthur David Olson) Subject: South Australia DST cutoff day To: bww+@cs.cmu.edu, kre@munnari.oz.au An extra three weeks would make the ending test "Sun>=22" as opposed to the "Sun>=1" used everywhere else, right? Making what we need Rule AS 1986 max adfest Mar Sun>=22 3:00 0 - Rule AS 1986 max nonfest Mar Sun>=1 3:00 0 - plus a "yearistype" script? ------- End Forwarded Message ------- Begin Forwarded Message #4 Date: Sat, 14 Mar 92 20:11:44 -0500 (EST) From: Bradley White <bww+@CS.CMU.EDU> Subject: Re: South Australia DST cutoff day To: Arthur David Olson <ado@elsie.nci.nih.gov> Cc: Robert Elz <kre@MUNNARI.OZ.AU> I don't know the exact rules in this case, but historically things usually happen on the ``third Sunday,'' which would be "Sun>=15" or "Sun<=21". Given that it is "Sun, 15 Mar 92" in South Australia at this very moment, it should be easy to find out if the shift was today, or is next week. [Aside: I actually just received a message from someone in Adelaide and the timezone still read +1030 (daylight time), so perhaps the ">=22" is right.] ------- End Forwarded Message ------- Begin Forwarded Message #5 Date: Mon, 16 Mar 92 00:57:07 +1000 From: Robert Elz <kre@munnari.oz.au> Subject: Re: South Australia DST cutoff day To: Bradley White <bww+@CS.CMU.EDU> Cc: Arthur David Olson <ado@elsie.nci.nih.gov> DST didn't end in Adelaide today (yesterday) (Aside: it did in NZ for a cross check on what the rules for NZ say). That's for sure - there was a world cup cricket match in Adelaide yesterday (Sunday), and it was certainly still daylight saving there. Quite apart from that, the news reports said "an extra 3 weeks in SA" and yesterday was just 2 weeks, so there's certainly one to go. But whether its "4th Sunday" or "2nd last Sunday" I have no idea whatever... (its just as likely to be "the Sunday we pick for this year"...) ------- End Forwarded Message