No subject


Sat Feb 25 02:52:01 UTC 2012


Status: RO

To: guy at auspex.com

Subject: Re:
machine independence



> So do you remember how the rest of us (Elz, me, Bob
Device, Bradley White,

> etc.) got involved?



I don't, but the computer does.
(One advantage of working on image processing

is big disks and lots of
tapes.)



There was a fair amount of mod.std.unix posting in early '86, kicked
off by

Mark Horton's original "How best to handle time conversion?"
posting.



Bob Devine responded since he'd been responsible for time stuff with
an

earlier employer; he was person who knew that astrologers had the

best
information about DST in the past.



Robert Elz was motivated by the fact that
the Australian government fiddled

the DST rules down there for a visit by the
Queen in March of '86.

He boldly installed the early code just before the
visit.

Robert's changes to "date" to work with the new functions showed up
in

mod.sources in June of '86.



Robert knew of your work before I did:



> From
munnari!kre  Tue Aug 26 13:10:08 1986 remote from seismo

> . . .

> To:
elsie!ado

> . . .

> Did Guy Harris (sun!guy) ever send you his mods to this
stuff?

> He has made the compiled timezone files be in "standard" format

> so
they can reside on one host on a net, and have others access

> them (by NFS or
whatever), regardless of whether there's a mixture

> of Sun's vaxen, etc, with
different byte orders & such.



Clearly the mods had been sent by the time
that

the "timezone mailing list" was announced in late '86:



> From ado Mon Nov
24 19:58:54 1986

> . . .

> To: tz

> Subject: seismo!elsie!tz ; new versions of
time zone stuff

> 

> Now that we've moved from 4.1BSD to 4.3BSD here at elsie,

>
I've set things up so that mail sent to

> 	seismo!elsie!tz

> will go to
folks who've expressed an interest in time zone matters. . .

> Currently on the
list:

> 	ado at elsie.UUCP

> 	chris at umcp-cs.UUCP

>
mark at cbosgd.ATT.COM

> 	kre at munnari.OZ

> 	dlm at cuuxb.ATT.COM

>
devine at vianet.UUCP

> 	bob at anvil.UUCP

> 	rgt at hpfcdg.UUCP

>
guy at sun.UUCP

> . . . 

> And now the real news:  new versions of the time zone
compiler, the

> ctime et al. library, and the time zone data are available.  Guy
Harris

> provided the bulk of the ideas and work that went into the new
versions,

> but should be held innocent of any blame for errors since I've
tinkered

> with Guy's work (in part to try for more compatibility with System V
and

> the work of rgt at hpfcdg.UUCP, who's the time zone person at
Hewlett-Packard).

> . . .



(How it is that I forgot after then how to spell
compatibility is beyond me.)



The mailing list saw a flurry of activity in
December of '86, with an upcoming

P1003 meeting due to try to figure out how to
standardize time conversion;

H-P was preparing an alternative proposal to
"P.55," which was based on the

table-driven stuff.  As part of the flurry, John
S. Quarterman

(who carried the banner before P1003) got involved at kre's
behest:



> From seismo!munnari!kre Sun Dec  7 06:57:42 1986

> . . .

> To:
elsie!tz

> Cc: jsq at sally.utexas.edu

> Subject: timezone proposals for P1003

> .
. .

> I think things are getting way too complicated.

> 

> All P1003 needs (and
all it should have) is a spec of

> the interface that programs should have to
time conversions.

> . . .

> Robert Elz			seismo!munnari!kre

> 

>
ps: I have added a cc to John Quarterman, who I guess is

> as close as anyone to
being my representative on P1003,

> given that I'm a usenix member...  John,
this is in response

> to some discussions over the HP proposals and other
replated

> issues.  elsie!ado can fill you in on what's been going on I think.

>
There's a mailing list at elsie for tz discussions.



Bradley White first appears
(at least in my back mail files) in early '87:

(presumably after the P1003
meeting?); he was referred by. . .



> From seismo!sun!guy Thu Feb 19 06:56:54
1987

> ...

> To: elsie!ado

> Subject: Could you send him the latest version when
it's ready?

> Cc: bww at k.cs.cmu.edu

> Status: RO

> 

> > From: Bradley White
<bww at k.cs.cmu.edu>

> > Subject: Re: diffs for ctime.c for new DST rules, v7
systems

> > To: guy at Sun.COM

> 

> > Guy,

> 

> > If you could send me (or point me
at) a copy of Arthur Olson's "ctime"

> > I will have it installed in CMU
Mach/Unix.  Hopefully this will aid in

> > its dissemination.

> ...




--ado





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