Timezone name translations

Paul Eggert eggert at CS.UCLA.EDU
Tue Dec 6 07:39:19 UTC 2005


Chuck Soper <chucks2 at veladg.com> writes:

> Does anyone know if the abbreviation/UTC offset combination is
> unique?

I wouldn't count on it.  Does "PST" mean "Pacific Standard Time"
or "Pitcairn Standard Time"?  They're both 8 hours behind UTC.

Or, if you want something a bit more obscure, "LMT" at 36 minutes and
32 seconds behind UTC can mean either "Local Mean Time" or "Lisbon
Mean Time", depending on the zone and year.

Neither of these examples are of major economic importance right now,
but they do indicate the assumption isn't safe.



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