[mod.std.unix] time conversion

std-unix@ut-sally.UUCP (03/08/86)

Date: Sat, 8 Mar 86 13:14:34 EST
From: elsie!ado@SEISMO.CSS.GOV

Source for the time zone compiler discussed here earlier has been posted to
mod.sources.  The new posting incorporates changes suggested by net readers:

*	"newctime" now returns a pointer to a string of exactly the
	same form as that returned by "ctime"--no time zone abbreviation
	appended.

*	the format of "time zone information files" has been changed so that
	the files can hold descriptions of arbitrarily large size.

I agree with munnari!kre--certainly the P1003 standard ought not require
conforming implementations to provide exhaustive time conversion capabilities;
kre's note about what the standard actually might look like is a good starting
place.  Still, the standard ought to allow folks to do arbitrary time
conversion if they want to; the mod.sources posting should provide both an idea
of just how arbitrary governments have been (and can be expected to be) in
defining "local time," and an idea of the sort of mechanism that would be
required to deal with this arbitrariness.
--
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Volume-Number: Volume 5, Number 68