Updated Australian time zone names/strings

[Greg Black]

Paul Eggert wrote:

| > Date: Fri, 06 Apr 2001 13:08:42 +1000
| > From: Greg Black <gjb at gbch.net>
| > 
| > The broken software consists of real mail clients out there that
| > people are still using.  Some of that software outputs email
| > with dates in this form:
| > 
| >     Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2000 09:34:42 EST
| 
| But that software is not necessarily broken; it conforms to the
| standards, so long as by "EST" the intended time zone is -0500.
| 
| > I have 217 recent messages in my mail folders with those dates.
| > Many of them are from US sites and so are really -0500, but many
| > of them are from Australian sites and mean either +1000 or +1100
| > with no way for software that wants to sort them to know about
| > the Australian dates.
| 
| That certainly has been a problem in the past, but I think it's
| declining as people gain more experience with the problem.
| 
| It would be helpful if someone could survey the incidence rate of this
| problem in general, and whether it's still a problem in practice.

OK, I re-scanned my recent mail folders (25663 messages) and
found 58 messages of Australian origin with just `EST' as shown
above.  Without revealing too much, I can say that some were
from an ISP, most were from AUUG executive members, academics at
Australian universities and people at government offices, with a
few from hotmail.  I know hotmail have fixed their system now.
The others should all know better, but seem not to have things
working as they should.

I've noted the opposition to the proposal for change and, while
not agreeing with it, acknowledge that my viewpoint seems most
unlikely to carry the day so I shall desist from pushing it any
further here.