johnsson@decwrl.UUCP (03/25/87)
I just heard on the news tonight about the latest proposal for uniform poll
closing time for presidential elections. Polls would close at
9 pm Eastern Standard Time
8 pm Central Standard Time
7 pm Mountain Standard Time
7 pm Pacific Daylight Time *** Say What!?
That's right, in presidential election years, daylight time would be
extended by two weeks in the Pacific time zone only. (No word on what happens
in Hawaii.)
I have no idea what the status of this proposal is, but it did make the
national news on TV tonight.
Do any of the recent proposals for parameter driven time conversion deal
with this class of tinkering?
--
Richard Johnsson, DEC Western Software Lab, Palo Alto, CA
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phone: +1 415 853 6676guy@gorodish.UUCP (03/25/87)
> That's right, in presidential election years, daylight time would be > extended by two weeks in the Pacific time zone only. (No word on what happens > in Hawaii.) > > Do any of the recent proposals for parameter driven time conversion deal > with this class of tinkering? From the "pacificnew" file in the Arthur Olson timezone code, as posted to net.sources: # @(#)pacificnew 3.1 # "Pacific Presidential Election Time" has been contemplated by the US Congress # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule Twilite 1987 max - Apr Sun>=1 2:00 1:00 D Rule Twilite 1987 max uspres Oct lastSun 2:00 1:00 PE Rule Twilite 1987 max uspres Nov Sun>=7 2:00 0 S Rule Twilite 1987 max nonpres Oct lastSun 2:00 0 S # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES/SAVE FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone US/Pacific-New -8:00 US P%sT 1987 -8:00 Twilite P%sT The types "uspres" and "nonpres" are hardcoded into the time zone file compiler for efficiency, but other types are supported; the compiler calls "system" with the command yearistype <year> <type> where <year> is the year number and <type> is the type string. If "yearistype" exits with an exit code of 0 (i.e., normal UNIX "true"), the year is considered to be of that type; otherwise, if it exits with an exit code of 1, the year is considered not to be of that type; otherwise, "yearistype" is assumed to be badly confused and the compiler quits after printing an error. This is done when the tables are built; the tables are just lists of transition times, so the only overhead this feature causes is whatever overhead is caused by the increase in table size.
cmoore@brl-adm.UUCP (03/25/87)
Regarding extension of Daylight Saving Time in Pacific zone in presidential election year: Didn't the law say the Sunday after the election? The 2 weeks you refer to does apply in 1988 (last Sunday of October is Oct. 30, election is Nov. 8, and the Sunday after the election is Nov. 13 in 1988). But if the last Sunday in Oct. is Oct. 31, then the election is Nov. 2 and the Sunday after the election is Nov. 7.
woolsey@nsc.UUCP (03/27/87)
So much for trying to use WWV to switch clocks to/from Daylight time. Just how would the DST bit be viewed as ON in the Pacific zone and OFF everywhere else for two weeks around presidential elections?