Subj : TZUTC
To   : Carlos Navarro
From : Michiel van der Vlist
Date : Sun Aug 08 2021 13:59:42

Hello Carlos,

On Sunday August 08 2021 09:09, you wrote to me:

 MV>> I have been a HAM for 50+ years and from the very beginning I always
 MV>> used GMT (as it was called back then) for my logs (compulsory back
 MV>> then) and for exchanging written confirmations called QSL cards. HAM
 MV>> radio is a global thing, so using GMT or UTC is the logical thing to
 MV>> do. I even had a clock in my shack that showed GMT.

 CN> A different beginning...

I am not the only HAM in Fidonet. There has always been - and still is to a point - a large overlap between de HAM community and Fidonet. TJ is not a HAM, but there must have been HAMS in the first nodelist.

 MV>> With that background information, I think using local time in Fidonet
 MV>> was a design flaw. Fidonet, like HAM radio is a globe spanning
 MV>> activity. Even in its country of origin, the USA, it spanned more
 MV>> than one time zone from the beginning.

 CN> I suppose that they didn't think it would expand so much. Or they just
 CN> didn't think too much about this. :-)

Maybe. Or maybe they considered GMT a "European thing". Like meters and kilograms. So they ignored it...

 MV>> Time information in Fidonet should have been in UTC, not local time.
 MV>> For additional information a TZLOC kludge could have been used.

 CN> I think I've read some discussions about this in FTSC_PUBLIC time ago,
 CN> but I know it's difficult, if not impossible, to make some changes
 CN> like this in Fidonet.

I have been the FTSC chairman for over a decade. I know how difficult it is to make such changes. We have no time machines. Ever so often one just has to live with the consequences of unfortunate choices made in the past and make the best of it.

 CN> Anyway with TZUTC, though maybe a bit kludgy, you can get the same
 CN> result (obtaining the UTC time) if the software supports this.  But
 CN> other than Jamnntpd, no idea what editors or packages do (I'm testing
 CN> several ones, little by little)

It is not to late to update Golded. It is open source...


Cheers, Michiel

--- GoldED+/W32-MSVC 1.1.5-b20170303
 * Origin: ZC1 certified techno-dick (2:280/5555)

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