Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uwm.edu!ogicse!milton!hayes.ims.alaska.edu!wisner
From: wisner@ims.alaska.edu (Bill Wisner)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: warning to all sinners in regard to current C News patches
Message-ID: <1991Mar24.221730.16001@ims.alaska.edu>
Date: 24 Mar 91 22:17:30 GMT
References: <1991Mar24.035259.20738@zoo.toronto.edu> <9ICP05C@methan.chemie.fu-berlin.de> <1991Mar24.194437.7713@world.std.com>
Organization: Amnesia International
Lines: 22

>However, non-numeric timezone names are a botch:  they are ambiguous and
>people seem to just invent new abbreviations at will (Q: how many
>timezones claim the name "CST"? "EST"?).  The less said about the mess in
>the USSR and daylight savings time in general, the better.

I'm rather fond of the way Sun arbitrarily decided that the abbreviation
for "Alaska Standard Time" is AKST in SunOS 4.1.  We use AST.  But then,
every other UNIX I've seen (and older SunOSes) uses YST for Yukon Standard
Time, a time zone designation that no longer exists.

>							     Timezones in
>Date:  headers should either be "GMT" (*strongly* preferred) or numeric
>(+hhmm or -hhmm [e.g. -0500, +0100]), per RFCs 1036 (netnews) and 1123
>(hosts requirements, which updates 822 [mail format], which is cited by
>1036).

Strongly seconded.

Bill Wisner <wisner@ims.alaska.edu> Gryphon Gang Fairbanks AK 99775
bnug, dude
yeah
.