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References: <827871857.1525.0@nifty.andrew.cmu.edu> (Tue, 26 Mar 1996
 15:24:17 -0500 (EST); From: Chris Newman <chrisn+@CMU.EDU>)
 <199603261929.OAA17321@CS.UTK.EDU> <827871857.1525.0@nifty.andrew.cmu.edu>
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Date: Wed, 27 Mar 1996 08:13:46 -0800
To: drums@cs.utk.edu
From: Dave Crocker <dcrocker@brandenburg.com>
Subject: Re: timezones & Date

At 3:23 AM 3/27/96, Olle Jarnefors wrote:
>1) If the MUA/MSA knows the actual time but not the user's local
>   time or time zone, it should use the time zone indication
>   "-0000" instead of "+0000", to announce that this time is

	This line of effort, to depict "unknown timezone", strikes me as
pretty subtle and a bit dangerous.  It's not as if we are that severely
constrained in the characters we use, is it?  Besides, cleverness such as
the above is creative but could have unfortunate effects.

	Software which silently treats +0000 the same as -0000 will not
trigger an alert that the timezone is unknown.  (Perhaps I'm wrong, but I
believe that number-parsing/converting software is HIGHLY likely to treat
them as the same.)

	Why don't we simply define a string for unknown that is
distinctively different, including having some visual distinction?  For
example UNKN.

d/

--------------------
Dave Crocker                                            +1 408 246 8253
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