Re: [HACKERS] Anyone using "POSIX" time zone offset capability?

Hi,

> The POSIX timezone notation as understood by the zic code includes
> the possibility of
>
> zoneabbrev[+-]hh[:mm[:ss]]
>
> but the meaning is that hh:mm:ss *is* the offset from GMT, and
> zoneabbrev is being defined as the abbreviation for that offset.
> What the datetime.c code is doing is trying to find the zoneabbrev
> in a built-in timezone table, and then adding the two together.
> This is simply wacko.

I think that if anyone has ever tried to use this notation they would have
noticed this misinterpretation of the specs.

> Given where the code stands now, I think the best solution is to
> rip out DecodePosixTimezone and instead pass the syntax off to the
> zic code (which can handle it via tzparse()). Since the datetime
> input parser is ultimately only interested in the GMT offset value,
> this would mean that the zoneabbrev part would become a noise word.

Sounds like a good idea to me.
Sander