FW: Australian time zone names

[Stuart Bishop]

Paul Eggert wrote:
> Mark Jerkovic [mailto:mjerkovic at aconex.com] writes:
> 
>> The Australian Government defines time zone names as follows:
> 
> I'm afraid the situation is a bit more complicated than that.  Have
> you read the comments in the time zone data source files about this
> controversial issue?  See the file "australasia" in the archive
> <ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzdata2007i.tar.gz> and look for "AEST".
> 

According to that source, the discussions occurred over 6 years ago before
there was any sort of governmental statement. Now we have a document on the
Australian Government's website clearly stating the abbreviations. Surely
this source outweighs these antique discussion and arguments?

I see plenty of reasons to change the abbreviations. I cannot find any
arguments for keeping them they way they are. Can anyone point me to or
articulate these arguments?

In particular, what conditions would need to be met to make the change or
reopen discussion on this topic?

I do notice that the abbreviations on the Beureu of Meteorology page [1] do
not match those on the Australian Government web site [2], so perhaps the
criteria might be more consensus amongst 'official' or trusted sources. Or
perhaps there is at least enough agreement that using different
abbreviations for different parts of the year (AEST/AEDT or EST/EDT) would
be kaizen. I for one certainly think it would be an improvement, even if it
isn't perfect.

[1] http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/daysavtm.shtml

[2] http://www.australia.gov.au/Time_Zones

-- 
Stuart Bishop <stuart at stuartbishop.net>
http://www.stuartbishop.net/

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