[HCDX]: RE: date and time format comments

[Bob Foxworth <Bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Date: Fri, 09 Apr 1999 22:43:16 +1300
> From: Chris Mackerell <chris@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: [HCDX]: International standards on Time - and Log Formats
> 
> Hi Greg
> 
> Its been a few years since COBOL was an international
> standard hasn't it ;-)
> 
	[Bob Foxworth]  It may be coming back this year!!

> Being a bit of an amateur astromonmer, and a webmaster
> trying to sort out Y2K problems, I'd definitely look
> at a better date format than YYMMDD!!!
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Chris
> 
	[Bob Foxworth]  I think you mean YYYYMMDD which I strongly recommend
	be used to avoid the century issue..programmers have used YYMMDD for
a long time as it sorts logically, and when you see the year first, there is
(should be!) no ambiguity as to MMDD or DDMM ("American" vs. "European"
method)

> Greg Baker wrote:
> > 
> > I would prefer to have all time read in HHMM format, with a
> one-character
> > readout for the time zone.  Similarly, I also think dates should be in
> > YYMMDD format, which is neither the American nor European manner, but
> makes
> > a lot of sense when you're sorting files.
> > 
> > I don't CARE if it's called UTC or TUC, or Fred Standard Time, as long
> as we
> > all understand about of what we talk.
> 
	[Bob Foxworth]  
	It is called "UTC" (and not CUT) for Universal Time, Coordinated
(Temps Universelle Coordinee, in French) to identify the fact, as I
understand it, that it is a synthesis of UT0 (the base value) corrected by
UT1 and UT2 which insert slight corrections (small parts of a second) to the
base value to account for subtle effects such as the spin wobble of the
Earth. To the casual user, UTC = GMT (if the corrections are not applied).
People using things like cesium-beam clocks have to use the corrected
values, which were I believe undetectable with traditional astronomy-based
methods. You can track down the RFC for Network Time Protocol rfc-1305 which
contains a chapter on the  history of timekeeping, it can be found at such
as ds.internic.net or cis.ohio-state.edu ... though it's been a while since
I read it over

>   "Z" is the standard abbreviation in
> > NATO date-time group parlance for GMT.
> > 
> >
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a message from Bob Foxworth <Bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
to hard-core-dx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx list. To unsubscribe the list, send
"unsubscribe hard-core-dx" in mail body to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
For more information, please check http://www.kotalampi.com/hard-core-dx/
or email Risto Kotalampi, risto@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
------------------------------------------------------------------------