Question on abbreviations

Ken Pizzini tz. at explicate.org
Thu Sep 28 00:38:45 UTC 2006


On Wed, Sep 27, 2006 at 04:13:52PM -0700, Mark Davis wrote:
> My reading of the specification (zic.8.txt) was that the first rule
> mentioned was operative during the interval from 1942 to "only", that is,
> during 1942 alone. This was by my reading of:
> 
>     TO      Gives the final year in which the rule applies.  In
>             addition to minimum and maximum (as above), the word
>             only (or an abbreviation) may be used to repeat the
>             value of the FROM field.
> 
> While it was explained to me what the actual code does, I don't think this
> is reflected in the above text

With the understanding that it is *transitions* being documented, it
is reflected.

>  or at least, not at all clearly.

Apparently not, since this is not the first time that this confusion
has come up.

>  According to this text, if I saw the following:
> 
> Rule    US    1942    1944    -    Feb    9    2:00      1:00    W # War
> 
> The rule should not apply in 1945.

Correct: the rule should *not* be applied in 1945.  If there is a
transition specified between 1944-02-09 and 1945-02-09, then the
effect of that transition will still be in effect, with *this* rule
*not* applied on 1945-02-09.

>  So I request that the text be fixed,

I'll make an attempt at making the text clearer...  but then again,
since I understood the original text and you found it misleading,
perhaps you'd like to take a stab at clarifying it?

		--Ken Pizzini



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