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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!brl-tgr!gwyn
From: gwyn@brl-tgr.ARPA (Doug Gwyn <gwyn>)
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Subject: Re: Daylight Savings Time
Message-ID: <493@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 10-Dec-85 10:11:38 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.493
Posted: Tue Dec 10 10:11:38 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 11-Dec-85 22:14:13 EST
References: <507@azure.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab
Lines: 24

It's 02:10 one Sunday morning.
You have just made a very important update to a disk file.
You clobber your file a few days later, so you restore it
from a backup, which was run automatically at 02:30 Sunday.
Funny, this doesn't look like the right file...

"It's 02:30 -- Do you know where your files are?"

I am 100% serious when I suggest that UNIX time reporting
be done in UT rather than local political time.  This is a
technically correct solution to a difficult people problem.
I have known people who operated on UT; when I was an SWL
I did so myself.  Why let yourself be sloshed around by
politicians when you can establish a regular schedule with
well-defined characteristics?

The problems with the mapping UT <-> local_time are:
	(a) It is complex.
	(b) It is irregular.
	(c) It is unpredictable for the future.
	(d) It is poorly documented.
	(e) It is discontinuous.
	(f) It is multiple-valued.
I say, who needs it?