etcetera patch

[Jesper Nørgaard]

"internal-style signedness" and "zic style"?? Reading the below utterings
just makes me bounce of the wall and scratch my head (but not at the same
time :-). 

Even though I have been on this mailing list for some time, I still have no idea 
what you are talking about. Wouldn't some plain english be in place here?

Sorry for the grouch. It was actually meant to be constructive criticism. If you
can't describe this without using a lot of words, insert examples in the sentences
right after the keywords.

Regards,

Jesper Nørgaard Welen
Email: jnorgard at Prodigy.Net.mx	
Programador/Analista
CIMMYT  -  Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo
Dirección: CIMMYT Int. c/o Jesper Nørgaard
Km. 45, Carretera México-Veracruz
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 http://cimmyt.cgiar.org
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----------
From: 	Paul Eggert[SMTP:eggert at twinsun.com]
Sent: 	Miércoles 14 de Febrero de 2001 3:17
To: 	alex at agsm.edu.au
Cc: 	tz at elsie.nci.nih.gov
Subject: 	Re: etcetera patch

> Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2001 18:03:54 +1100
> From: Alex LIVINGSTON <alex at agsm.edu.au>

> ># We use POSIX-style signedness in the names and output,
> ># internal-style signedness in the specifications.
> 
> What is "internal-style signedness"? Would your "average" tz user know? How?

It's zic style.  I'll change "internal" to "zic-input".

> ># ...  With the Draft 5 notation, people who
> ># prefer the traditional time zone sign can use TZ='<GMT-4>+4'.
> 
> What is "the traditional time zone sign"?

The sign where positive numbers are east of Greenwich.  I'll change
the wording here too.

> What about UTC as opposed to GMT?

The existing zone names all use "GMT" so I think it's better to use
GMT in the examples.

> Might you also say "people who prefer ISO-8601 compliant time-zone
> signs can use TZ='<UTC-04:00>+4' instead"?

That doesn't conform to either ISO 8601 or to d5.  ISO 8601 does not
allow the 'UTC'; d5 does not allow the ':'.  However, TZ='<-0400>+4'
would conform to both, I think; I'll add that example too.

Thanks for your comments.