Newsgroups: news.software.b
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Is anyone interested in putting local time in the "Date:" header?
Message-ID: <1989Dec1.042319.26810@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1989Nov30.141344.2597@talos.uucp> <14783@well.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 1 Dec 89 04:23:19 GMT

In article <14783@well.UUCP> Jef Poskanzer <jef@well.sf.ca.us> writes:
>}Not if the "+/- hhmm" timezone form is used instead of EST, EDT, etc.  E.g.
>}   Date: Thu, 30 Nov 89 09:10:00 -0500
>
>The more I think about this idea, the more I like it.  Now I'm really
>tempted to punt the X-Local-Date hack and do this instead...

Be very careful that you do it right.  You *can't* just append the "+/-hhmm"
to any random date format; getdate barfs on some such combinations.  The
one above does work.  RFC1036 (and most news software!) requires that dates
be acceptable to getdate.  (The getdate *command* shipped with C News is an
easy way to test this.)

For the moment, the official C News will continue to generate GMT dates.
I frankly don't see the usefulness of including the timezone information.
If you see an article from me posted at 0900 EST, that does not mean it's
likely to be coherent and correct; quite the reverse, since I'm normally
asleep at 0900.  If you see one from me posted at 0100 EST, it doesn't
mean I posted it when I was dog-tired after a late night -- that's not
late for me.

And let us not forget that thanks to various idiot manufacturers, not
all binary-only systems can set their timezones correct.  I routinely
get mail from a friend of mine in Australia with the postmark claiming
that her machine is on EST, which it most assuredly is not.  She hasn't
been able to find a fix.
-- 
Mars can wait:  we've barely   |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
started exploring the Moon.    | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
