Date: Fri, 24 May 1996 18:29:24 -0400
From: dj (DJ Delorie)
Message-Id: <199605242229.SAA04119@delorie.com>
To: haude AT physnet DOT uni-hamburg DOT de
CC: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
In-reply-to: <4o49n5$aa9@rzsun02.rrz.uni-hamburg.de> (HAUDE@alpha5.physnet.uni-hamburg.de)
Subject: Re: What is all this "timezone" stuff for?


> isn't quite satisfied yet. What's wrong with reading the local time from the
> computer system clock?

Nothing, except that POSIX defines the "time"(*) as being relative to
GMT.  When you read a zip file or tar file, you need a common basis
for understanding the time, else everything will be off by some number
of hours.  You can't determine this common basis without knowing your
time zone.


(*) The unit for time (time_t) is "seconds since the Epoch", Epoch
being Jan 1 1970 00:00 AM GMT.