[ extract of message from Bill Studenmund on "Re: Installer proposal..." ]
> On Tue, 14 Apr 1998, Colin Wood wrote:
> 
> > Michael G. Schabert wrote:
> > > But _why_ do we need so many darn files when there are exactly 24 time
> > > zones????? Even if we had 24 "regular" and 24 "DST" it would be much easier.
> > 
> > You would think that there are only 24 timezones, but there aren't.  Due
> > to the brilliance of local governments, there are quite a few oddities out
> > there.  For example, in the US, I don't think that Arizona obeys DST, so
> > it needs a separate one.  All of Russia is one hour behind normal
> > timezones IIRC.  There are a number of other little exceptions here and
> > there :-)
> 
> Then ther are also places, like Iran I think, where they are some number
> of hours + 30 minutes off of Zulu time. It happens when a country
> straddles a timezone line, and decides neither timezone suits it.
>

...and then you've got Australia. Every state needs it's own timezone file.
For starters South Australia is 30 minutes behind the timezone of the eastern
states. The three eastern states are all on the same timezone, but daylight
saving operates differently in each state - Queensland has no daylight
saving (it fades the curtains, don't you know), Victoria ends daylight
saving at then end of some festival in march and NSW changes its mind every
few years whenever a new party gets into power.

So there you go - one country, seven timezone files. There are a lot of
countries in the world...

	david

--

David Johnston
david@canopus.apana.org.au