Time Zone Localizations

[Mark Davis]

> Well, that turns out not to be the case.

You are saying that if I generated a series of dates, one per year, going back
100 years, that the format would change in the middle? If my spreadsheet did
that, I'd figure it was a bug -- *not* a feature.

Mark
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Cowan" <cowan at ccil.org>
To: "Mark Davis" <mark.davis at jtcsv.com>
Cc: <tz at lecserver.nci.nih.gov>
Sent: Sun, 2004 Jun 13 20:05
Subject: Re: Time Zone Localizations


> Mark Davis scripsit:
>
> > When I generate a date right now, and the date happens to be in the
> > past at some time, I don't generate it with the conventions that would
> > have applied in *on that date* (unless I am doing a historical novel,
> > for example).
>
> Well, that turns out not to be the case.  Try "date -d 1943-01-01"
> on a system where GNU 'date' is available (Linux, e.g.)  Set TZ to an
> American time zone first if need be.
>
> > (Also, we looked at using the Olson TZID abbreviations, but they don't
> > appear to have wide currency -- people in the countries in question
> > didn't seem to be familiar with them -- so we decided not to use them.)
>
> They are not meant to be authentic, and exist because time libraries
> are expected to provide a time zone abbreviation even where they
> don't really exist.
>
> -- 
> John Cowan  jcowan at reutershealth.com  www.reutershealth.com
www.ccil.org/~cowan
> Rather than making ill-conceived suggestions for improvement based on
> uninformed guesses about established conventions in a field of study with
> which familiarity is limited, it is sometimes better to stick to merely
> observing the usage and listening to the explanations offered, inserting
> only questions as needed to fill in gaps in understanding. --Peter Constable
>