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From: wales@CS.UCLA.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp,news.misc,comp.unix.questions,misc.misc
Subject: Re: timezones query
Message-ID: <11212@shemp.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 8 Feb 88 18:41:08 GMT
References: <415@cstowe.csoft.co.nz>
Sender: root@CS.UCLA.EDU
Reply-To: wales@CS.UCLA.EDU (Rich Wales)
Organization: UCLA CS Department, Los Angeles
Lines: 27
Keywords: timezone, GMT

Regarding the sign of time zones in Europe:

In the "Date:" line of an RFC822-format message, Central European Time
(1 hour east of GMT) is represented as "+0100".  That is, "east" is
"positive", and "west" is "negative".

A site in The Netherlands which is using "-0100" as the time zone offset
in its outgoing mail is in error.  (Unless they mean to imply that The
Netherlands have moved to a new location west of Ireland. :-})

As various other people have recently pointed out, RFC822 contains an
error in that the signs of the single-letter time zone designators (page
26) were inadvertently reversed.  Thus, 12 noon (Central European Time)
may be written as "12:00 A" (*NOT* "12:00 N").  This error has caused
endless confusion, sad to say.

When installing most (all?) UNIX systems, on the other hand, the time
zone offset in the kernel configuration file is of the opposite sign
(i.e., "east" is "negative", and "west" is "positive").  The reason for
this is historical and USA-chauvinistic:  UNIX was developed in the USA
by programmers who undoubtedly never dreamed at the time that it would
become the international sensation it is now.

-- Rich Wales // UCLA Computer Science Department // +1 (213) 825-5683
	3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, California 90024-1596 // USA
	wales@CS.UCLA.EDU           ...!(ucbvax,rutgers)!ucla-cs!wales
"Sir, there is a multilegged creature crawling on your shoulder."