Xref: utzoo comp.mail.headers:610 comp.std.internat:745 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!emory!gatech!mcnc!rti!dg-rtp!jester!eliot From: eliot@jester.rtp.dg.com (Topher Eliot) Newsgroups: comp.mail.headers,comp.std.internat Subject: Summary: I18n of date/time in mail Message-ID: <1990Dec14.135933.26562@dg-rtp.dg.com> Date: 14 Dec 90 13:59:33 GMT Sender: usenet@dg-rtp.dg.com (Usenet Administration) Reply-To: eliot@dg-rtp.dg.com Organization: Data General Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC Lines: 48 I enquired about internationalizing date/time strings in mail, particularly in mail headers. First, it was pointed out that RFC822 is no longer the final word; one must also consult RFC1123. In particular, RFC1123 says that the "military" time zones described in RFC822 are all wrong, and promotes the use of +/-HHMM time zone designations. This use of +/-HHMM was almost universally recommended by the respondents, even for North America. The time zone names (e.g. EST) are anything but unique. The traditional time zone name can be included on the date line as a comment, if desired (assuming it doesn't have any 8-bit characters). On the issue of Daylight Savings Time: as one respondent put it, using the +/-HHMM designations will "finesse" the DST issue. Of course, I should have realized this, since these don't describe your time zone in terms of location, but merely in terms of time difference from GMT. It does mean that at different times of year, your mail will have a different time zone designation (-0500 vs -0400, for example). Craig Everhart also said, about code to produce this kind of date string: > The code for this is freely available as part of the Andrew contribution > to the X.V11R4 tape, in .../andrew/overhead/mail/lib/arpadate.c . David Stone sent me more than I ever wanted to know about time zone names. Thanks to the many folks who replied: From: Hans Henrik Eriksen From: Christopher-Vance@adfa.oz.au From: Robert Claeson From: Stig Hemmer From: Craig_Everhart@transarc.com From: David Stone From: mac@dit.upm.es (Manuel Alvarez-Campana Fernandez-Corredor) From: ckd@cs.bu.edu From: eggert@twinsun.com (Paul Eggert) From: parghi@cs.uiuc.edu (Amit Parghi) An an indirect thanks to these folks, whose words were forwarded to me: From: Erik-Jan Bos -- SURFnet BV From: Gary Dixon -- Topher Eliot Data General Corporation eliot@dg-rtp.dg.com 62 T. W. Alexander Drive {backbone}!mcnc!rti!dg-rtp!eliot Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 (919) 248-6371 Obviously, I speak for myself, not for DG.