Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ncar!gatech!mcnc!rti!dg-rtp!jester!eliot From: eliot@jester.rtp.dg.com (Topher Eliot) Newsgroups: comp.std.internat Subject: Re: Time zone names on mail outside North America Message-ID: <1990Dec18.163218.938@dg-rtp.dg.com> Date: 18 Dec 90 16:32:18 GMT References: <1990Dec13.173731.531@zoo.toronto.edu> <1990Dec13.180844.15200@mp.cs.niu.edu> <1990Dec14.000511.2507@zoo.toronto.edu> <1990Dec14.004807.10995@mp.cs.niu.edu> <1990Dec15.180350.5920@alphalpha.com> Sender: usenet@dg-rtp.dg.com (Usenet Administration) Reply-To: eliot@dg-rtp.dg.com Organization: Data General Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC Lines: 27 In article <1990Dec15.180350.5920@alphalpha.com>, nazgul@alphalpha.com (Kee Hinckley) writes: |> In article keld@login.dkuug.dk (Keld J|rn Simonsen) writes: |> >Why don't we do like sendmail has done it for ages? |> >Write "GMT+2" for somebody (like me and most of other western |> >European people) being two hours ahead of GMT. |> What do you do for places where the timezone bumps by less than |> an hour (I hear Saudia Arabia does it in minutes). For what it's worth, "GMT+2" doesn't meet the RFC 822 specification. "+0200" does. So does "+0032", if that's what you want. Someone else said: |>Here's my personal opinion for what it is worth. I like the headers |>that use the numeric offset with a description in parentheses, such as: |>Date: 14 Jun 1990 11:23:35 -0800 (PDT) |>Another alternative which I have not seen but might be nice is: |>Date: 14 Dec 1990 11:23:35 -0700 (Pacific Std Time) I basically agree with this, but watch out for time zone names that contain characters with the high bit on! I don't know that any are in use, but as far as I know, there's nothing in the (other) time zone mechanisms to prevent them from being created. -- 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.