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Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!grkermit!masscomp!clyde!burl!hou3c!solomon@wisc-crys.ARPA
From: solomon@wisc-crys.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.mail.headers
Subject: Re: Several questions/comments on time zones
Message-ID: <8401291435.AA00179@wisc-crys.ARPA>
Date: Sun, 29-Jan-84 09:35:43 EST
Article-I.D.: wisc-cry.8401291435.AA00179
Posted: Sun Jan 29 09:35:43 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 2-Feb-84 01:07:26 EST
Sender: ka@hou3c.UUCP (Kenneth Almquist)
Lines: 26

This is another example of the pitfalls of confusing an interchange
standard with a user-interface standard.  Users would prefer to
see dates in local-time format, but interchange programs would prefer
something a bit more uniform and structured.  If RFC 733 (and its successor,
822) had not made the mistake of defining a mail header in such a way as to
make it appear to be designed to be read, the header could encode dates in
any form convenient for exchange (some encoding of UT), and users who
wanted to read or send mail would be FORCED to write or have written
a program to translate to/from local time.  (You may interpret this as
a plug for the new NBS standard).

By the way, in most cases, the "local time" the user would prefer to
see in messages is his OWN local time.  For example, when I'm reading
a message from somebody and want to know whether he wrote it before
or after some particular event (for example, I want to know whether
he wrote it early enough that it's likely he saw a particular message
from me), I'd rather see the Date line expressed in my own local time.
Whenever I have to look at Received lines, I find that even to sort them in
chronlogical order, I have to mentally convert to local time (or some other
fixed time zone).  Offhand, I cannot think of any situation where I want
to see the Date line in the sender's local time, and I would argue that
NOBODY wants to see maintenance timestamps (such as Received) expressed
in the time zone where they were inserted.