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From: steveq@syd.dms.CSIRO.AU (Stephen Quigg)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Posix compliant TZ implementation
Keywords: ctime() localtime() gmtime() mktime() asctime() tzname[2]
Message-ID: <1991Apr16.040845.27642@syd.dms.CSIRO.AU>
Date: 16 Apr 91 04:08:45 GMT
References: <91041010973@wiesje.hobby.nl>
Sender: news@syd.dms.CSIRO.AU
Organization: CSIRO Maths and Stats & Applied Physics, Sydney, Australia
Lines: 21

In article <91041010973@wiesje.hobby.nl> baron@wiesje.hobby.nl (Wim `Blue Baron' van Dorst) writes:
> stuff deleted 
>* date        The format of the date shall be one of the following:
>*             Jn      Julian day (1 <= n <= 365)
>*                     leapdays are NOT counted, so March 1 is always day 60
>*             n       Zero-based Julian day (0 <= n <= 365)
>*                     leapdays are counted, so March 1 is day 61 in leapyears
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>Blue Baron = Wim van Dorst, Voice (+31) 074-443937, (+31) 02152-42319 >(-:       baron@wiesje.hobby.nl           tgcpwd@urc.tue.nl       :-)
>---------------------------------------------------------------------

The "Julian" day mentioned above is really "day number" The Julian date
is a unique number for any date, JD 1 being reckoned from Jan 1, 4713 B.C.,
so that today's date is Jd 248363. There is also a modified Julian Date,
MJD which is JD - 240,000.5, the .5 because the MJD starts on the previous
midnight. (This calculation assumes that the JD has a fractional part to
signify time-of-day. The fraction is usually dropped.) Hence, today's
MJD is 8362. Sometimes a 5-digit figure is given, ie  MJD 48362 .  
 If I've confused you, or you want more info, mail me.
Regards,
Steve Quigg.