[ProgSoc] General timezone (Java Question: Timezone)

[Telford Tendys <telford@nospam.progsoc.uts.edu.au>]

On Fri, Feb 25, 2000 at 01:09:45PM +1100, Bryn Price wrote:
> 
> TimeZone tz = TimeZone.getTimeZone("AET");
> TimeZone.setDefault(tz);
> 

Well at least Java gives Australia a semi-sensible name for its
zone... one thing that really SHITS me about the Linux timezone system
is that the Australia/Sydney zone abbreviates to EST which could be
``Eastern Standard Time'' (i.e. no daylight saving) or could be
``Eastern Summer Time'' (i.e. only daylight saving). Also the Melbourne
zone and a bunch of others also abbreviate to EST despite not being
the same as each other with respect to their daylight saving behaviour
(NB historical daylight saving counts too). Plus, about a third of the
USA is also on EST which is their East coast not ours! Thus when you
see a date like:

   Fri Feb 25 15:29:54 EST 2000

You can be quite sure that it means nothing at all.

I would guess that Java has just given the whole of Australia's East
coast one zone and to hell with daylight saving -- let people get confused
and maybe they will give it up as a bad joke. In the meantime the linux
zones have to find some decent three letter abbreviations. For a start,
the T in EST and AET is pretty stupid because we already know it is a
time, I suggest SYD for Sydney, that shouldn't conflict with much.

	- Tel
--
You are subscribed to the progsoc mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a
message containing "unsubscribe" to progsoc-request@nospam.progsoc.uts.edu.au.
If you are having trouble, ask owner-progsoc@nospam.progsoc.uts.edu.au for help.

This list is archived at <http://www.progsoc.uts.edu.au/lists/progsoc/>