On 2011.1.6 4:44 AM, Joshua Rodman wrote:
> The pedant-compatible timezone name is really "Europe/London". Or
> "Europe/Lisbon", or "Europe/Dublin". All three of those are different
> timezones, although they probably only diverge historically.
>
> The short names like BST refer not to timezones that anyone exists in, but
> offsets used by particular people at particular times. These names are older
> and crufty, but by the same token more familiar to some people so they get
> used for that reason. The pedantic ones are extremely recognizable though, so
> I use them in all the software I write.
My favorites are EST which is, of course, "Eastern Standard Time". Eastern
what? Could be the US or it could be Australia. Just a mere 15 hours
difference.
CST is even more fun. "Central Standard Time" where it could be Central
Australia or Central America or Central US. Or "China Standard Time". Or
"Cuba Standard Time".
CST (Australia) is doubly fun because it's one of those weird half hour time
zones. I don't understand why. The states it covers are spot in the middle
of where +9 should be. Everyone else on that band is +9, even the South
Australian ocean.
Time zones are riddled with hate.
--
44. I am not the atheist chaplain.
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