Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!axion!tsa!domo
From: domo@tsa.co.uk (Dominic Dunlop)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: `GMT' -> `UT' in news header dates
Message-ID: <1991Mar27.090345.14750@tsa.co.uk>
Date: 27 Mar 91 09:03:45 GMT
References: <1991Mar25.030637.8126@twinsun.com>
Reply-To: domo@tsa.co.uk (Dominic Dunlop)
Organization: The Standard Answer Ltd.
Lines: 28

In article <1991Mar25.030637.8126@twinsun.com> eggert@twinsun.com (Paul
Eggert) writes:
> Nntp-Posting-Host: burns

Sorry to hear that.							:-)

> Shouldn't news software eventually switch from saying `GMT' to saying `UT' in
> the date lines of news headers?  `UT' is in the standard, it has a more
> international flavor than the English-centric `GMT', and it's one byte shorter.
> C News didn't support `UT' until its just-released patch set, so we shouldn't
> change to `UT' right now, but why not head in that direction eventually?

Well, ISO 8601:1988, Representation of dates and times, designates a
trailing Z as indicating Coordinated Universal Time (as in 20:30:30Z).
This is derived from the old ``Zebra'' convention -- does your date
command still support the -z option -- and differs from ``the standard''
(presumably the RFC, which I have to admit to not having to hand).
I'd say that this was a good argument for not heading towards a future
where UT is the only allowed form.  And Z is one byte shorter yet than
UT -- although I really don't think many people are counting.

(Incidentally, ISO 8601, sidestepping the issue of timezone names just
as it sidesteps the naming of days of the week and months, specifies
signed two-digit hour offsets and optional two-digit minute offsets from
UTC as indicating times in particular timezones -- for example
12:27:46-05 or 12:27:47-05:00.  So news is OK on that score (isn't it?).)
-- 
Dominic Dunlop