TZ names (Was: Re: Bit operations in PL47 localtim.c)

[Jerry Geiger <jerry@zedat.fu-berlin.de>]

On Mon, 23 Jun 1997, Andreas Schwab wrote:

> The official name of the time zone here in Germany is Mitteleuropaeische
> Zeit (MEZ).  There is no such thing as *the* middle european time zone,
Why ist it called `Mitteleuropaeische Zeit (MEZ)' then??
> because it spans many countries, 
I think that's the reason why it is called `central' or `Mitteleuropaeische'

In the tz-rules file 'europe' from the gnu-libs glibc-2.0.3 I found:
(file glibc-2.0.3/time/europe)
------
# @(#)europe	7.43

# This data is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better,
# go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to
# tz@elsie.nci.nih.gov for general use in the future).

# From Paul Eggert <eggert@twinsun.com> (1996-11-22):
# A good source for time zone historical data outside the U.S. is
# Thomas G. Shanks, The International Atlas (3rd edition),
# San Diego: ACS Publications, Inc. (1991).
#
# Gwillim Law <LAW@encmail.encompass.com> writes that a good source
# for recent time zone data is the International Air Transport
# Association's Standard Schedules Information Manual (IATA SSIM),
# published semiannually.  Law sent in several helpful summaries
# of the IATA's data after 1990.
#
# Except where otherwise noted, Shanks is the source for entries through 1990,
# and IATA SSIM is the source for entries after 1990.
#
# Another source occasionally used is Edward W. Whitman, World Time Differences,
# Whitman Publishing Co, 2 Niagara Av, Ealing, London (undated), which
# I found in the UCLA library.
#
# I invented the abbreviations marked `*' in the following table;
# the rest are from earlier versions of this file, or from other sources.
# Corrections are welcome!
#		std dst
#		LMT	Local Mean Time
#	-4:00	AST	Atlantic
#	-3:00	WGT WGST Western Greenland*
#	-1:00	EGT EGST Eastern Greenland*
#	 0:00	GMT BST Greenwich, British Summer
#	 0:00	GMT IST Greenwich, Irish Summer
#	 0:00	WET WEST Western Europe
#	 1:00	CET CEST Central Europe
#	 2:00	EET EEST Eastern Europe
#	 3:00	MSK MSD	Moscow
------
...
------
# The official German names ... are
#
#	Mitteleuropaeische Zeit (MEZ)         = UTC+01:00
#	Mitteleuropaeische Sommerzeit (MESZ)  = UTC+02:00
#
# as defined in the German Time Act (Gesetz ueber die Zeitbestimmung (ZeitG),
# 1978-07-25, Bundesgesetzblatt, Jahrgang 1978, Teil I, S. 1110-1111)....
# I wrote ... to the German Federal Physical-Technical Institution
#
#	Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB)
#	Laboratorium 4.41 "Zeiteinheit"
#	Postfach 3345
#	D-38023 Braunschweig
#	phone: +49 531 592-0
#
# ... I received today an answer letter from Dr. Peter Hetzel, head of the PTB
# department for time and frequency transmission.  He explained that the
# PTB translates MEZ and MESZ into English as
#
#	Central European Time (CET)         = UTC+01:00
#	Central European Summer Time (CEST) = UTC+02:00


  jerry
        jerry@merlin.abacus.de          jerry@zedat.fu-berlin.de