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-rw-r--r--timezone/australasia121
1 files changed, 117 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/timezone/australasia b/timezone/australasia
index fe01a3e15c..c30ea37503 100644
--- a/timezone/australasia
+++ b/timezone/australasia
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# @(#)australasia 7.64
+# @(#)australasia 7.65
# This file also includes Pacific islands.
# Notes are at the end of this file
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@
# Australia
+# Please see the notes below for the controversy about "EST" versus "AEST" etc.
+
# Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S
Rule Aus 1917 only - Jan 1 0:01 1:00 -
Rule Aus 1917 only - Mar 25 2:00 0 -
@@ -359,7 +361,7 @@ Zone Pacific/Palau 8:57:56 - LMT 1901 # Koror
# Papua New Guinea
# Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL]
Zone Pacific/Port_Moresby 9:48:40 - LMT 1880
- 9:48:40 - PMMT 1895 # Port Moresby Mean Time
+ 9:48:32 - PMMT 1895 # Port Moresby Mean Time
10:00 - PGT # Papua New Guinea Time
# Pitcairn
@@ -399,6 +401,8 @@ Rule Tonga 1999 only - Oct 7 2:00s 1:00 S
Rule Tonga 2000 only - Mar 19 2:00s 0 -
Rule Tonga 2000 only - Nov 4 2:00s 1:00 S
Rule Tonga 2001 only - Jan 27 2:00s 0 -
+Rule Tonga 2001 only - Nov 25 2:00s 1:00 S
+Rule Tonga 2002 only - Mar 3 2:00s 0 -
# Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL]
Zone Pacific/Tongatapu 12:19:20 - LMT 1901
12:20 - TOT 1941 # Tonga Time
@@ -473,7 +477,7 @@ Zone Pacific/Wallis 12:15:20 - LMT 1901
# Thomas G. Shanks, The International Atlas (5th edition),
# San Diego: ACS Publications, Inc. (1999).
#
-# Gwillim Law <Gwil_Law@bridge-point.com> writes that a good source
+# Gwillim Law 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
@@ -535,12 +539,93 @@ Zone Pacific/Wallis 12:15:20 - LMT 1901
# prefixed by the word `Australian' when referring to local times;
# time announcements on that service, naturally enough, are made in UTC.
-# From Arthur David Olson (March 8 1992):
+# From Arthur David Olson (1992-03-08):
# Given the above, what's chosen for year-round use is:
# CST for any place operating at a GMTOFF of 9:30
# WST for any place operating at a GMTOFF of 8:00
# EST for any place operating at a GMTOFF of 10:00
+# From Paul Eggert (2001-04-05), summarizing a long discussion about "EST"
+# versus "AEST" etc.:
+#
+# I see the following points of dispute:
+#
+# * How important are unique time zone abbreviations?
+#
+# Here I tend to agree with the point (most recently made by Chris
+# Newman) that unique abbreviations should not be essential for proper
+# operation of software. We have other instances of ambiguity
+# (e.g. "IST" denoting both "Israel Standard Time" and "Indian
+# Standard Time"), and they are not likely to go away any time soon.
+# In the old days, some software mistakenly relied on unique
+# abbreviations, but this is becoming less true with time, and I don't
+# think it's that important to cater to such software these days.
+#
+# On the other hand, there is another motivation for unambiguous
+# abbreviations: it cuts down on human confusion. This is
+# particularly true for Australia, where "EST" can mean one thing for
+# time T and a different thing for time T plus 1 second.
+#
+# * Does the relevant legislation indicate which abbreviations should be used?
+#
+# Here I tend to think that things are a mess, just as they are in
+# many other countries. We Americans are currently disagreeing about
+# which abbreviation to use for the newly legislated Chamorro Standard
+# Time, for example.
+#
+# Personally, I would prefer to use common practice; I would like to
+# refer to legislation only for examples of common practice, or as a
+# tiebreaker.
+#
+# * Do Australians more often use "Eastern Daylight Time" or "Eastern
+# Summer Time"? Do they typically prefix the time zone names with
+# the word "Australian"?
+#
+# My own impression is that both "Daylight Time" and "Summer Time" are
+# common and are widely understood, but that "Summer Time" is more
+# popular; and that the leading "A" is also common but is omitted more
+# often than not. I just used AltaVista advanced search and got the
+# following count of page hits:
+#
+# 1,103 "Eastern Summer Time" AND domain:au
+# 971 "Australian Eastern Summer Time" AND domain:au
+# 613 "Eastern Daylight Time" AND domain:au
+# 127 "Australian Eastern Daylight Time" AND domain:au
+#
+# Here "Summer" seems quite a bit more popular than "Daylight",
+# particularly when we know the time zone is Australian and not US,
+# say. The "Australian" prefix seems to be popular for Eastern Summer
+# Time, but unpopular for Eastern Daylight Time.
+#
+# For abbreviations, tools like AltaVista are less useful because of
+# ambiguity. Many hits are not really time zones, unfortunately, and
+# many hits denote US time zones and not Australian ones. But here
+# are the hit counts anyway:
+#
+# 161,304 "EST" and domain:au
+# 25,156 "EDT" and domain:au
+# 18,263 "AEST" and domain:au
+# 10,416 "AEDT" and domain:au
+#
+# 14,538 "CST" and domain:au
+# 5,728 "CDT" and domain:au
+# 176 "ACST" and domain:au
+# 29 "ACDT" and domain:au
+#
+# 7,539 "WST" and domain:au
+# 68 "AWST" and domain:au
+#
+# This data suggest that Australians tend to omit the "A" prefix in
+# practice. The situation for "ST" versus "DT" is less clear, given
+# the ambiguities involved.
+#
+# * How do Australians feel about the abbreviations in the tz database?
+#
+# If you just count Australians on this list, I count 2 in favor and 3
+# against. One of the "against" votes (David Keegel) counseled delay,
+# saying that both AEST/AEDT and EST/EST are widely used and
+# understood in Australia.
+
# From Paul Eggert (1995-12-19):
# Shanks reports 2:00 for all autumn changes in Australia and New Zealand.
# Mark Prior <mrp@itd.adelaide.edu.au> writes that his newspaper
@@ -756,6 +841,28 @@ Zone Pacific/Wallis 12:15:20 - LMT 1901
# # The state of VICTORIA.. [ Courtesy of Vic. Dept of Premier + Cabinet ]
# # [ Nov 1990 ]
+# From Scott Harrington (2001-08-29):
+# On KQED's "City Arts and Lectures" program last night I heard an
+# interesting story about daylight savings time. Dr. John Heilbron was
+# discussing his book "The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar
+# Observatories"[1], and in particular the Shrine of Remembrance[2] located
+# in Melbourne, Australia.
+#
+# Apparently the shrine's main purpose is a beam of sunlight which
+# illuminates a special spot on the floor at the 11th hour of the 11th day
+# of the 11th month (Remembrance Day) every year in memory of Australia's
+# fallen WWI soldiers. And if you go there on Nov. 11, at 11am local time,
+# you will indeed see the sunbeam illuminate the special spot at the
+# expected time.
+#
+# However, that is only because of some special mirror contraption that had
+# to be employed, since due to daylight savings time, the true solar time of
+# the remembrance moment occurs one hour later (or earlier?). Perhaps
+# someone with more information on this jury-rig can tell us more.
+#
+# [1] http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/HEISUN.html
+# [2] http://www.shrine.org.au
+
# New South Wales
# From Arthur David Olson:
@@ -1120,6 +1227,12 @@ Zone Pacific/Wallis 12:15:20 - LMT 1901
# From Rives McDow (2000-12-01):
# Tonga is observing DST as of 2000-11-04 and will stop on 2001-01-27.
+# From Rives McDow (2001-07-17):
+# The Kingdom of Tonga will move to DST at 0200 local time on Sunday,
+# November 25, 2001 and revert back to standard time at 0300 local
+# time on Sunday, March 3, 2002.
+
+
###############################################################################
# The International Date Line