Question about: TWiki.org Service: Date and Time Gateway

[Peter Thoeny]

Dear Krystian and tz team,

The program on TWiki.org takes the data from the Olson tz 
database, http://www.twinsun.com/tz/tz-link.htm

I am not sure I can explain the +/- GMT question, someone from 
the Olson tz database team is probably better in that.

More info on GMT at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMT

Info on timezones at
http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/info/timezone.htm

Interstingly, above site shows GMT times in reverse to the
Olson database! E.g. for me in California, the Olson database 
tells me I am in Etc/GMT+8, and greenwichmeantime.com tells me
I am GMT-8.

Regards,
Confused Peter


krystian at mindspring.com wrote:
> 
> This question pertains to the data within:
> 
> TWiki.org Service: Date and Time Gateway
> http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/xtra/tzdate
> 
> Which I believe is under a revision by your penmanship.
> 
> Q. Are the GMT offsets mixed in this website? When I think of GMT-5 I think
> of Eastern Standard Time, however your site lists GMT-5 as where I always
> think GMT+5 is.
> 
> > Greenwich Mean Time: (GMT/UCT/UTC/Universal/Zulu;
> > positive numbers count hours west of GMT
> 
> What is the cause of having positive numbers count west of GMT? Aren't
> positive numbers, by definition, to be east of GMT? (like GMT+5 is add 5
> hours to the time at GMT?)
> 
> I've seen lots of confusion about this on the web and I don't understand why
> this is so. I have always thought GMT-5 was Eastern Standard Time, not some
> time in the European longitudes.
> 
> Can you please speculate on this? I'm also trying to find the difference
> between UTC and GMT (as I've read they are the same but not exactly). Maybe
> this is how they differ.
> 
> I'm terribly confused. Please offer an explanation to your readers in the
> form of a link or direct them to such a place.
> 
> Regards,
> Roland Krystian Alberciak.

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   * Peter Thoeny                           Peter at Thoeny.com
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