[tz] EST/EDT vs AEST/AEDT in AQ [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Ian Abbott abbotti at mev.co.uk
Fri Apr 12 16:27:58 UTC 2013


On 2013-04-12 15:57, Tobias Conradi wrote:
> POSIX requirements for abbreviations can be fulfilled without English
> terminology. E.g. WIT could mean Waktu Indonesia Timur (Eastern
> Indonesian Time) instead of IANA used English Western Indonesia Time.

The "Theory" file says "Use abbreviations that are in common use among 
English-speakers".  I don't know if that means world-wide or within the 
region it applies to.

> The English speaking countries largely get their way through with
> locally used abbreviations, whilst needs and wishes of others are
> ignored.

Traditionally, system text in the default "POSIX" (or "C") locale is in 
US English, although I don't think that's a POSIX requirement.  (The 
character set may limit the options as I think it's limited to ASCII, 
although I believe there is some debate about whether LC_CTYPE="POSIX" 
allows UTF-8 encoded messages or not.)

The POSIX standards and ISO C standards do not mention localization at 
all for the "%Z" format-specifier of strftime() (or other places where a 
timezone abbreviation could appear), but do specifically state that 
output for various other strftime() format-specifiers is localized.

-- 
-=( Ian Abbott @ MEV Ltd.    E-mail: <abbotti at mev.co.uk>        )=-
-=( Tel: +44 (0)161 477 1898   FAX: +44 (0)161 718 3587         )=-


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