Subject: Re: RFC 2445 Q: is TZID broken?

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 14:53:58 -0500

Mark, having different implementations is a hurdle to interoperability. 
This is one of the items that is being worked on during our interop 
testing.  I know there was some work going on about having one place/table 
to use for timezones.  The Olson table was suggested - although people 
have commented that it is not all-inclusive.  Mr. Olson said he was 
willing to share this table with the IETF world so there would be one 
common repository.  What he did not want to do was be responsible for 
communicating changes back and forth to the IETF.  he has another person, 
anyway, who manages this.  I brought it up to management at the IETF - and 
they said they were will to have someone "be responsible" for intereacting 
with the Olson table group.  I think it simply fell off of the radar scope 
for someone to follow up and continue this effort.  I keep hoping someone 
on this list is a zealot about timezones and would be willing to help 
"nudge" this along. 

Mark Swanson <[email-masked]>
Sent by: [email-masked]
01/22/2003 13:48

        To:     [email-masked]
        cc: 
        Subject:        RFC 2445 Q: is TZID broken?

Hello,

There seems to be an issue with time zones:
(from the spec)

                 "The specification of
        globally unique time zone identifiers is not addressed by this
        document and is left for future study."

Since I'm seeing various popular ICalendar implementations use their own 
formats, how can anything be expected to interoperate?

You obviously can not rely on GMT offset ("America/Phoenix" and 
"America/Denver" both have GMT-07:00, but differ in daylight savings 
behavior) so time zone identifiers are required.

Would a list of timezones for every available implementation be required? 
As 
well as a mapping between them all?

Anyone can see the time zones that ScheduleWorld uses by iterating through 
the 
available TimeZone.getAvailableIDs(). 

Thank you.

-- 
Schedule your world with ScheduleWorld.com
http://www.ScheduleWorld.com/
Java Web Start:
http://www.ScheduleWorld.com/sw/ScheduleWorld.jnlp

---

From: Mark Swanson <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 15:25:09 -0500

> on this list is a zealot about timezones and would be willing to help

Interesting. Thanks.

Would it be feasible to say that it may have fallen off of the radar scope 
because strings like "US-Eastern" are just identifiers and the real time zone 
definition is in VTIMEZONE (which can define any past/present/future time 
zone including daylight savings)?

- --

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 15:11:16 -0500

Pat wrote on 01/22/2003 02:53:58 PM:
>           I know there was some work going on about having one 
place/table 
> for someone to follow up and continue this effort.

A long time ago Doug has a side effort going to convert the Olsen info 
into VTIMEZONEs (or was that Daemon??)  Perhaps we can get some zealot (or 
any other volunteer) to work on a tool to convert the Olsen info into 
VTIMEZONEs that we provide as reference data...

Doug already has enough on his lap so Id see if someone else wants to 
revive that effort...

Bruce <sititng back down to hide from the volunteer selecting gaze of the 
WG chairs...>
===========================================================================
Bruce Kahn                                INet: 
[email-masked]
Messaging & Collaboration                 Phone: 978.399.6496
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Standard disclaimers apply, even where prohibited by law...

---

From: Andrea Campi <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 10:44:34 +0100

> VTIMEZONEs that we provide as reference data...

What exactly you think is needed? I think several different projects
already use the Olson database in VTIMEZONE form - the only question
is, how updated do they keep their copies.
Are you only talking about keeping a central repository up to date?

If that's the case, I would like to step forward...

Bye,
	andrea

-- 
Andrea Campi                              mailto:[email-masked]
I.NET S.p.A. - BT Ignite                  http://www.inet.it
Technical Dept. - R&D			  phone: +39 02 32863 ext 1
v. Darwin, 85 - I-20019			  fax: +39 02 32863 ext 7705
Settimo Milanese (MI), Italy

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 15:24:40 -0500

Andrea responded on 01/24/2003 04:44:34 AM:
> What exactly you think is needed? 

Id like to see one effort to develop and maintain an Olsen dB -> VTIMEZONE 
dB tool that we as a community could rely on.  I knew of several efforts 
but none are still around (or I just got dropped from their distribution 
lists). 

>                                    I think several different projects

And each probably rolled their own conversion tool that probably have 
different bugs and thus possibly different VTIMEZONE defintions.  Id love 
to see 1 effort that we can all rely on.

> Are you only talking about keeping a central repository up to date?

Actually IANA already signed up for that a while ago.  Last I knew that 
effort was awaiting data (that had been safety checked for accuracy) and 
the nomination of someone to be the submitter to IANA.  Frank (does he 
even lurk here anymore??) or Pat or Bob should be able to speak better to 
this though.

> If that's the case, I would like to step forward...

Paaaattt!  Grab him quickly!  Ill get the leg irons... ;^)

Bruce

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From: John Stracke <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 16:26:42 -0500

> Paaaattt!  Grab him quickly!  Ill get the leg irons... ;^)

Nah, no need for leg irons; the work can be done anywhere there's 
connectivity.  We just need an RFID tag on the back of the neck so we 
can find them.  :-)

-- 
/================================================================\
|John Stracke      [email-masked]                         |
|Principal Engineer|http://www.centive.com                       |
|Centive           |My opinions are my own.                      |
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