Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!know!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!orion.oac.uci.edu!ucivax!gateway From: SXKAC%ALASKA.BITNET@cornellc.cit.cornell.edu (Kurt Carlson) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.iso.x400 Subject: RE: Time zones again. Message-ID: <9008301357.aa22000@ICS.UCI.EDU> Date: 30 Aug 90 21:12:14 GMT Reply-To: Kurt Carlson Lines: 37 Approved: usenet@ICS.UCI.EDU > From: Marvin Solomon > In addition to NST and AST I have > NDT (Newfoundland Daylight Time): -2:30, and > ADT (Atlantic Daylight Time): -3:00 > I also have HST (Hawaiian Standard Time): -1000 > (rather than Hawaii-Alaskan -- I understand it isn't really used > in Alaska). As I commented privately to Christian Huitema previously, Alaska uses AST/ADT which covers the majority of the state with the exception of the Aluetian Islands. The time equates to Yukon (-9) not Hawaii. Since AST/ADT were not referenced explicitely within RFC822 (which doesn't recognize the world beyond the "continental" United States... I never have figured out exactly which continent Alaska is supposed to be on) we implemented our mailer to use the offset from GMT/UT for messages routed out of Alaska. While we took the "correct" course in using an offset from GMT, that does not preclude the existance of other Alaska mailers or some bureaucrat someday insisting I convert to the accepted AST/ADT abbreviations which will collide us with Atlantic (Greenland/Iceland?)... nor does it preclude some borough or village declaring their own time zone according to the geographic diferential from Greenwich disregarding the State of Alaska definition merging 4 geographic zones into one. I suspect the further one looks, the more collisions one will find between "local" designation for time zones. There may not be a solution to correctly mapping the time zones without (yet another) standard. You may be best advised to take whatever best approaches a documented standard for abbreviations (is there anything else beyond rfc822?) and simply map the numerous others directly as UT... that may encourage others to abide by something resembling a standard. Alternatively, simply use the time you received the message ignoring the post time. Kurt Carlson, University of Alaska