[tz] LST

[Robert Elz]

    Date:        Fri, 14 Oct 2011 01:45:07 -0400
    From:        John Hawkinson <jhawk at mit.edu>
    Message-ID:  <20111014054507.GA19029 at multics.mit.edu>

  | It is, however, a bit misleading to suggest that the special cases are
  | rare and not frequent

I didn't say not frequent, but compared with the number of zones, they
are relatively rare.

  | -- since they apply to the US,

Yes, of course - and Australia, and even perhaps (probably) EC Europe.

  | they are in fact extremely common for many many users.

First, no-one is even suggesting removing the information where it is
useful, so America/New_York will keep producing EST/EDT way off into
the foreseeable future.    And if you (somehow) know that a date string is
from North America, you could use the EST/EDT to convey information.

But that "somehow" still needs to be handled - and other in the cases
where the users "just assume" (rightly or wrongly) something has to
convey that information - and I'd submit that whatever does, can just
as easily convey everything needed (not just "this is north america", but
"this is the eastern north american time zone and summer time applies").

Note that (other than perhaps with MST) none of the "big 4" north american
zone abbreviations are unique, seeing EST, CST or PST doesn't tell you it
that a date string is from north america.   You need extra info.

  | How do we feel about "___".

I am not sure that is quite alphabetic enough.

kre