FW: Australian timezone abbreviation EST

[Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E]]

I'm forwarding this message from Joachim Wieland, who is not on the time zone mailing list. Those of you who are on the list, please direct replies appropriately.

        --ado
________________________________________
From: joachim.wieland at googlemail.com [joachim.wieland at googlemail.com] On Behalf Of Joachim Wieland [joe at mcknight.de]
Sent: Sunday, August 01, 2010 12:55 PM
To: tz at lecserver.nci.nih.gov
Subject: Australian timezone abbreviation EST

Hi there,

I am a bit confused by the definition of some Australian timezones in
the database, maybe someone could shed some light here...

When I look at Melbourne for example, I see:

[...]
Rule    AV  2008    max -   Apr Sun>=1  2:00s   0   -
Rule    AV  2008    max -   Oct Sun>=1  2:00s   1:00    -
# Zone  NAME        GMTOFF  RULES   FORMAT  [UNTIL]
Zone Australia/Melbourne 9:39:52 -  LMT 1895 Feb
            10:00   Aus EST 1971
            10:00   AV  EST

It looks like there is only one valid timezone abbreviation, which is
EST! EST seems to change its offset whenever Australia/Melbourne
changes from dst or back? Isn't that more than confusing? How would
one know what time "4:15pm EST" is?! Or am I only misreading this?

http://www.travelmath.com/time-zone/Australia/Melbourne tells me:

"The GMT offset is currently UTC/GMT +10 hours (EST). It will change
[...]. The new GMT offset will be UTC/GMT +11 hours (EST)."


Thanks for your help,
Joachim

PS: I am not subscribed to the list, it would be nice if you could
copy me in your replies. Thanks.