[OT] [plug] CVS timezones

[James Devenish]

In message <1051605457.10905.79.camel at gilgal.oddsocks.net>
on Tue, Apr 29, 2003 at 04:37:37PM +0800, Michael Hunt wrote:
> However in order to reduce the amount of information shown
> whenever the time is displayed (i.e on the console when issuing a date
> command or in a time stamp on a mail message or log file) this is
> abbreviated to the relevant timezone (i.e. WST for Western Standard
> Time).

That is what I vehemently disagree with. POSIX is, of course, no help at
all when dealing with time and date. Why should `date` output this:
    Tue Apr 29 19:01:46 WST 2003
when it could instead output something more well formed, like `date -R`
(which is not available with most operating systems by default):
    Tue, 29 Apr 2003 19:01:47 +0800
This is an instantaneous timestamp, so there is no reason to even think
about such problems as whether Australia has more time zones than
states. 'WST' doesn't even inform someone from the northern hemisphere
that it's winter here and the chances of daylight saving, however
politically probably, are unlikely to be in effect at this particular
time.