Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wasatch!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcvax!ukc!reading!riddle!domo
From: domo@riddle.UUCP (Dominic Dunlop)
Newsgroups: comp.std.internat
Subject: Re: International time zones
Message-ID: <1044@riddle.UUCP>
Date: 18 Aug 89 11:50:58 GMT
References: <993@ks.UUCP> <383@shodha.dec.com> <1043@riddle.UUCP>
Reply-To: domo@riddle.UUCP (Dominic Dunlop)
Organization: Sphinx Ltd., Maidenhead, England
Lines: 21
Summary: IS 8601:1988 punts on the issue

In article <1043@riddle.UUCP> domo@riddle.UUCP (that's me) wrote:
>>In article <993@ks.UUCP>, jriegel@cstemp2.almaden.ibm.com writes:
>> I need the 3-letter abbreviation (CET, etc.) [for time zones]
>
>Coincidentally, I have just ordered IS 8601:1988 ``Data elements and
>interchange formats -- Information interchange -- representation of dates
>and times''.  If it has anything to say about the names of timezones, I'll
>post the good news to this group.

Well, it arrived, and it punts on the issue.  The standard represents dates
and times entirely as numbers with a little punctuation thrown in as an
option.  Put Z after a time and it is taken to mean UTC (Greenwich Mean
Time to traditionalists); put a sign and a two or four digit offset, and
you have a time displaced from UTC by that number of hours (two digits) or
by hours and minutes (four digits).  Three-letter zone names are not
mentioned at all (which is consistent: the names of months and days of the
week do not get a look in either).
-- 
Dominic Dunlop
The Standard Answer Ltd., using Sphinx' facilities (for which much thanks)
domo@sphinx.co.uk