TZ database content

[Alex LIVINGSTON]

At 14:07 +0100 2001-02-12, Antoine Leca wrote:
>3) I do not really see the use of it. When I am in Western Spain, in Winter
>(Standard Time, you'll say), the sun is more ahead of the clock than it is
>when I am in Eastern Germany in Summer (Daylight Time, you'll say). So the
>place is at least as much important as the abbreviation, here.

You mean "When I am in western Spain in winter (standard time, you'll 
say), the _clock_ is more ahead of the _sun_ [more than an hour and a 
half] than it is when I am in eastern Germany in summer (daylight 
time, you'll say) [about an hour].".

Apart from that, I'm with you all the way, Antoine!

PS:

You might have chosen eastern Poland as your second location, because 
there clocks are less than half an hour ahead of the sun in summer. 
Or for a really extreme case, you could have picked far north-eastern 
Norway, where clocks are a few minutes _behind_ the (mean) sun, even 
in summer! At such a high latitude, day and night are relatively 
indistinct, though, and fade into each other so gradually, and at 
such varying times of day during the year, that keeping clock time in 
accord with the sun is less of an issue. (But perhaps you're never in 
Poland or Norway. :-) )

The breadth of the European central time zone (more than three and a 
half hours) rivals that of all-one-time-zone China. I understand, 
however, that in Spain, lunch is at three in the afternoon (that is 
when the lunch-time TV news is broadcast), and all other daily 
activities are correspondingly "postponed", thus nullifying the 
effect of the far-advanced clock. This suggests the possibility of 
dividing the world into a few broad time zones, with schedules 
adjusted within them according to relative longitude.
_______________
Alex LIVINGSTON
IT, Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM), UNSW SYDNEY NSW 2052
Fax: +61 2 9931-9349 / Phone: +61 2 9931-9264 / Time: UTC + 10 or 11 hours

At end of today, Wednesday, February 14,
   time since epoch (1-1-1 at 00:00:00)
     = 730530 days = 2000.12320582 average Gregorian years
   time since 2nd millennium, 20th century, 200th decade, 2000th year
     = 45 days = .12320582 average Gregorian years