[tz] Idea for internationalized time point unique time zone abbreviations

Ian Abbott abbotti at mev.co.uk
Thu Jun 7 08:59:24 UTC 2012


On 2012-06-06 18:51, Boruch Baum wrote:
> On 06/06/2012 01:12 PM, Ian Abbott wrote:
>> Well she might expect the abbreviations in the TZ environment
>> variable to be used without localization, in which case there would
>> need to be a hidden flag in the global variables (and the struct tm
>> for the re-entrant variants of various time-related functions) to
>> say if the time-zone abbreviations are allowed to be localized.
>>
> I don't understand any of this. Could you please 'dumb-down' the
> description of the case and your solution?

Well, say the set the TZ environment variable to "AST5" and expected 
"AST" to be displayed as the timezone abbreviation rather than some 
translation based on the user's current locale.

Actually, "AST" is used as the abbreviation for several real timezones, 
so even if it localization were allowed, the localization would have to 
depend on the specific timezone it came from as well as the user's 
current locale.  Of course, Herr Conradi's proposal for unique timezone 
abbreviations would help in that case.

-- 
-=( Ian Abbott @ MEV Ltd.    E-mail: <abbotti at mev.co.uk>        )=-
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