Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site hou3c.UUCP 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.