[tz] [PROPOSED PATCH 1/4] Prefer +-NN notation for UT-offset time zones in comments.

Lester Caine lester at lsces.co.uk
Thu Aug 25 11:25:30 UTC 2016


On 25/08/16 05:42, Paul Eggert wrote:
>> I think UTC-1 is both more common, and less ambiguous than -01
> 
> You make a good point that "UTC-1" is less ambiguous in general English
> text. Unfortunately in tzdata commentary "UTC-1" is often not
> technically correct, as UTC is not defined for older time stamps.
> 
> With this in mind, how about if we change that commentary to use "UT
> -01" instead, as in the attached proposed patch. This should be clear
> enough within the tzdata context. The space after the "UT" encourages
> shorthands like "switch from UT -09 to -08" without having to repeat the
> "UT" all the time.

I think this does read better - "within the tzdata context" - which
simply needs a novice reader to be aware when one can mentally think UTC
or even GMT in a different context.

Displaying local times where one has sufficient information to show the
correct TIMEZONE is somewhat different to trying to guess that from a
simple offset on a single date string.

-- 
Lester Caine - G8HFL
-----------------------------
Contact - http://lsces.co.uk/wiki/?page=contact
L.S.Caine Electronic Services - http://lsces.co.uk
EnquirySolve - http://enquirysolve.com/
Model Engineers Digital Workshop - http://medw.co.uk
Rainbow Digital Media - http://rainbowdigitalmedia.co.uk


More information about the tz mailing list