Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!orion.oac.uci.edu!ucivax!ucla-cs!twinsun!eggert
From: eggert@twinsun.com (Paul Eggert)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: Changes to CNEWS date parsing - what is now legal?
Message-ID: <1991Jun22.213542.2256@twinsun.com>
Date: 22 Jun 91 21:35:42 GMT
References: <21JUN91230123@carat.arizona.edu>
Sender: usenet@twinsun.com
Organization: Twin Sun, Inc
Lines: 29
Nntp-Posting-Host: twinsun

jms@carat.arizona.edu (Joel M. Snyder) writes:

>	21 JUN 91 23:01:23 

>I interpret this to be incorrect, since RFC-822 seems to imply that
>JUN needs to be Jun and one MUST have a time zone.  

The JUN doesn't have to be Jun; see ``Case Independence'' in RFC 822.
Unfortunately if you spell it JUN you'll tickle bugs in old versions of
some widely used news software (NN springs to mind).

You're right, the time zone is required.  It's best to use GMT.

Apparently the quoted time is local time; if you must use local time because
that's all VMS gives you, then it's best to use a numeric time zone.
Also, RFC 1123 recommends using a 4-digit year.  E.g. the date should
be something like ``21 Jun 1991 23:01:23 -0700''.

By the way, your article's Message-ID is simply the current time in
seconds; does this mean that your news software mishandles two articles
posted during the same second at the same host?


>So: how strictly is C-News going to hold me to RFC-822?  More
>generally, "what are the new rules?"

The _rules_ are the same as before: RFCs 1036 and 822 as amended by 1123.
C News is still more permissive than the RFCs,
but's obviously it's unwise to rely on this.