NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/comp/mail/misc/4132

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-29 | 10.9 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!math.fu-berlin.de!mailgzrz.TU-Berlin.DE!bronto.zrz.tu-berlin.de!elsn4000
From: [e-mail] (Frank Elsner)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: timezones
Date: 29 Dec 1992 12:07:56 GMT
Organization: TUBerlin/ZRZ
Lines: 261
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]>
NNTP-Posting-Host: bronto.zrz.tu-berlin.de

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (SW International) writes:
>1) Sorry, I don't know where to post this. Since timezones are used in
>    mail-headers, I thought this is a place as good as any...
>
>2) I'm looking for a list of *official* timezones, as valid in mail
>    and/or elsewhere. Is there a ftp-site for this?
>
>3) thx alot

Here is what I have on this topic, hope it helps.

Frank Elsner (TUBerlin Postmaster)
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From:         Peter  Sylvester [phone] <GRZ027@DBNGMD21>
Subject:      Re: Time zone information
To:           Frank Elsner <181@DB0TUZ01>

It comes up each year:


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Subject: Time Zones
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Hi.

Is "BST" Bering Standard Time or British Summer Time ?  And how many
hours from my time in California is "MEZ" ?  As far as i can find
there are no international standards for time zone names or three
letter codes.  The ISO has a standard for the representation of local
time differentials (ISO 4031).  In this standard the time "zone" is
indicated by a numeric offset from Co-ordinated Universal Time (UTC).
Below is a message from some folks at MIT reporting on their
investigation in to time zones.

--jon.


Date:  Fri, 22 Feb 85 14:55 EST
From:  Gary Dixon <[e-mail]>
Subject:  Re: zone sources
To:  [e-mail]
cc:  "Gary M. Palter" <[e-mail]>,
     James A Falksen <[e-mail]>
Resent-Date:  22 Feb 85 22:43 EST
Resent-From:  [e-mail]
Resent-To:  [e-mail]
Resent-Comment:

       Jon,
        --
          Remember the discussion a couple of months ago about time zone
          designators and the Multics protocol police rejection of
          things not in your specification?  Well, the Multics central
          guru bureau has reversed field, and is about to start
          accepting any time zone designator in a much larger legal
          list, which I attach for your amusement.  If you should ever
          find yourself faced with a need to reissue the relevant RFC
          and a demand for further time zone definitions, these people,
          in classic Multics fashion, seem to have gotten off to a
          somewhat scholarly start (notwithstanding the astrology
          reference.)
        --
          Now if we could just get the ISO people to debate things like
          this instead of proposing presentation management protocols
          before anyone has built one, they might actually provide us a
          useful service.
        --
                                        Regards,
                                                  Jerry
        --
          -------

Hi, Jerry:

   Gary Palter relayed your inquiry on Multics time zones to me, as project
leader of the software team which developers the new Multics date/time
software.  Jim Falksen was the other team member, and he supplied our starting
set of time zone names, which were then augmented based upon customer input.

Our investigations haven't turned up any standards for zone names, other than
the ANSI standard for US names.  It took some digging to find any references
which listed zone names and offsets.

Jim Falksen used the following sources to form his initial list of time zone
names:

    from THE ASTROLOGY ANNUAL REFERENCE BOOK, 1981 by Marcian B.  MacGregor
    and Zipporah Pottenger Dobyns, Ph.D.

    "STANDARD TIME(ZONE TIME):  At an International Conference held in
    Washington D.C.  on October 1, 1884, the Greenwich Meridian was adopted
    as the prime meridian (0 degrees), with equal division of the world in
    24 fifteen-degree time zones (as originally proposed by Sanford Fleming,
    a Canadian civil and railway engineer).  Subsequently the following
    International Time Zones were adopted:

     -0000 WET  Western European Time
     -0100 WAT  West Africa Time
     -0200 AT   Azores Time
     -0300 BST  Brazil Std Time
     -0330 NFT  Newfoundland Time
     -0400 AST  Atlantic Std Time
     -0500 EST  Eastern Std Time
     -0600 CST  Central Std Time
     -0700 MST  Mountain Std Time
     -0800 PST  Pacific Std Time
     -0900 YST  Yukon Std Time
     -1000 CAT  Central Alaska Time
     -1030 HST  Hawaiian Std Time
               *Hawaii adopted -1000 in 1947
     -1100 NT   Nome Time
     -1100 BT   Bering Time
     -1200 IDLW INternational Date Line, West
     +0100 CET  Central European Time
     +0200 EET  Eastern European Time, USSR Zone 1
     +0300 BT   Baghdad Time, USSR Zone 2
     +0330 IT   Iran Time
     +0400      USSR Zone 3
     +0500      USSR Zone 4
     +0530 IST  Indian Standard Time
     +0600      USSR Zone 5
     +0630 NST  North Sumatra Time
     +0700 SST  South Sumatra Time, USSR Zone 6
     +0730 JT   Java Time
     +0800 CCT  China Coast Time, USSR Zone 7
     +0830 MT   Moluccas Time
     +0900 JST  Japan Std Time, USSR Zone 8
     +0930 SAST South Australia Std Time
     +1000 GST  Guam Std Time, USSR Zone 9
     +1130      USSR Zone 10
     +1130 NZT  New Zealand Time
               *adopted +1200 in 1945
     +1200 IDLE International Date Line, East"


A second source was THE AMERICAN EPHEMERIS, 1971 to 1980, By Neil F Michelsen.

    "Time ZOnes of the World
     +0000 GMT  Greenwich
     -0100 WAT  West Africa
     -0200 AT   Azores
     -0300      Brazil Zone 2
     -0330 NST  Newfoundland
     -0400 AST  Atlantic
     -0500 EST  Eastern
     -0600 CST  Central
     -0700 MST  Mountain
     -0800 PST  Pacific
     -0900 YST  Yukon
     -1000 AHST Alaska-Hawaii
     -1030 HST  Hawaiian
     -1100 NT   Nome
     -1100 BST  Bering
     -1200      Int'l Date Line
     +0100 CET  Central European
     +0100 MET  MIddle European
     +0200 EET  Eastern European
     +0300 BT   Baghdad
     +0400      USSR Zone 3
     +0500      USSR Zone 4
     +0530 IST  Indian
     +0600      USSR Zone 5
     +0630 NST  North Sumatra
     +0700 SST  South Sumatras
     +0730 JT   Java
     +0800 CCT  China Coast
     +0900 JST  Japan
     +0930 SAST South Australia
     +1000 GST  Guam
     +1200 NZT  New Zealand"

From these two lists we derived the following times.  Items below which are
starred were added to the basic list at customer request.

 known time zones:
 |-11:00  nt Nome Time
 |      |-10:00  ahst Alaska-Hawaii Standard Time
 |      |      | -9:00  yst Yukon Standard Time
 |      |      |      | -8:00  pst Pacific Standard Time
 |      |      |      |      | -7:00  mst Mountain Standard Time
 |      |      |      |      | -7:00  pdt Pacific Daylight Time
 |      |      |      |      |      | -6:00  cst Central Standard Time
 |      |      |      |      |      | -6:00  mdt Mountain Daylight Time
 |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |
 |-11:00|-10:00| -9:00| -8:00| -7:00| -6:00| -5:00| -4:00| -3:00| -2:00|
 |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |
                 Eastern Standard Time est   -5:00|      |      |      |
                 Central Daylight Time cdt   -5:00|      |      |      |
                       Atlantic Standard Time ast   -4:00|      |      |
                        Eastern Daylight Time edt   -4:00|      |      |
                      Newfoundland Standard Time nst   -3:30    |      |
                            Greenland  Standard Time gst   -3:00|      |
                              Atlantic Daylight Time adt   -3:00|      |
                                                 Azores Time at   -2:00|

 | -1:00  wat West Africa Time
 |      | +0:00  ut Universal Time
 |      | +0:00  z Universal Time
 |      | +0:00  gmt Greenwich Mean Time
 |      |      | +1:00  bst British Summer Time (*)
 |      |      | +1:00  cet Central European Time
 |      |      | +1:00  met Middle Europe Time
 |      |      | +1:00  mewt Middle Europe Winter Time
 |      |      | +1:00  swt Swedish Winter Time (*)
 |      |      | +1:00  fwt French Winter Time (*)
 |      |      | +1:00  hfh Heure Francais d'Hiver (*)
 |      |      |      | +2:00  mest Middle Europe Summer Time
 |      |      |      | +2:00  eet Eastern European Time
 |      |      |      | +2:00  sst Swedish Summer Time (*)
 |      |      |      | +2:00  fst French Summer Time (*)
 |      |      |      | +2:00  hfe Heure Francais d'Ete (*)
 |      |      |      |      | +3:00  bt Baghdad Time
 |      |      |      |      |      | +4:00  zp4 GMT +4  hours.
 |      |      |      |      |      |      | +5:00  zp5 GMT +5  hours.
 |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |
 | -1:00| +0:00| +1:00| +2:00| +3:00| +4:00| +5:00| +6:00| +7:00| +8:00|
 |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |
                     Indian Standard Time ist   +5:30    |      |      |
                             GMT +6  hours.   zp6   +6:00|      |      |
                  (*) West Australian Standard Time wast   +7:00|      |
                                               Java Time jt   +7:30    |
                         (*) West Australian Daylight Time wadt   +8:00|
                                           China Coast Time cct   +8:00|

 | +9:00  jst Japan Standard Time
 |    +9:30  cast Central Australian Standard Time (*)
 |    +9:30  sast South Australian Standard Time
 |      |+10:00  east East Australian Standard Time (*)
 |      |   +10:30  cadt Central Australian Daylight Time (*)
 |      |   +10:30  sadt South Australian Daylight Time (*)
 |      |      |+11:00  eadt East Australian Daylight Time (*)
 |      |      |      |+12:00  nzt New Zealand Time
 |      |      |      |      |
 | +9:00|+10:00|+11:00|+12:00|

Also, we have recently received a request to add

  +12:00  nzst New Zealand Standard Time (*)
  +13:00  nzdt New Zealand Daylight Time (*)

but haven't added them to our table yet.

Hope this helps.  Gary

*****  end  *****
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