🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <7129@ogicse.ogc.edu> I wrote:
} In article <3257@taux01.UUCP> crehta@taux01.nsc.com (Ran Ever-Hadani) writes:
} } How hard should it be to fix the folder sort-by-date to take
} } time zones into consideration?
} 
} Mush currently does absolutely *nothing* with time zones -- it doesn't
} even store them in its internal representation of the date.  I've begun
} working on some code for timezones but it isn't anywhere near finished.

OK, folks, I need some help here.  What follows is a list of all the date
formats mush understands.  Some of them have time zone fields, some appear
not to.  All were reported by users of mush at one time or another.

I'll run through the ones that I know have TZ first, to give you an idea
what I'm after, and then if you recognize any of the other formats and can
tell me if and where they give a TZ -- probably at the far right somewhere,
but I can't be sure -- we'll be one step closer to doing this right.  First
comes mush's comment-text description of the format, and then some
reconstructions as best I can do them -- I've never seen most of these.

===
The formats that have time zones.  Note that we've had complaints about
formats that lack a seconds field in the time, so we have to check for
both cases if we scan past a time field looking for a timezone.
---
     *   day_name month_name day_number time timezone year_number

	Mon Feb  5 14:05:57 PST 1990
	Mon Feb  5 14:05:57 -0800 1990
	Mon Feb  5 14:05 PST 1990
	(This should be good 'ol ctime, but somebody mangles it anyway.)
---
     *   day_number month_name year_number time timezone ...

	5 Feb 1990 14:05:57 PST
	5 Feb 1990 14:05:57 -0800
	5 Feb 1990 14:05 PST
	(The first two are RFC822 format, which, interestingly, RFC882
	violates in its own examples section -- there, it uses something
	like the last one, except with no `:' between hours/minutes.  No
	one has ever complained about encountering that format.)
---
     *   day_number month_name year_number time-timezone (day)
     *                                       ^no colon separator

	5 Feb 1990 140557-PST (Mon)
	5 Feb 1990 1405-PST (Mon)
	5 Feb 1990 1405-0800 (Mon)	[??]
	(Does this ever show up with a GMT-offset as zone?  Does it
	ALWAYS show up with a GMT-offset, and the "-" is part of the
	time rather than a separator?)
===
This next format is a bit suspicious.  I wonder if that "-" floating
out there is the beginning of a GMT-offset zone.  Anybody know?
---

     *   day_number month_name year_number, time "-"

	5 Feb 1990, 14:05:57 -
	5 Feb 1990, 14:05:57 -0800	[??]
===
These formats are not known to have time zones.  Recognize any of them?
---
     *   day_name month_name day_number time year_number

	Mon Feb 5 14:05:57 1990
---
     *   day_name month_name day_number year_number time

	Mon Feb 5 1990 14:05:57
---
     *   day_number month_name year_number 12_hour_time am_or_pm

	Mon Feb 5 1990 02:05:57 pm
---
     *   day_name day_number month_name year_number time

	Mon 5 Feb 1990 14:05:57
---
     *   day_number month_name year_number time

	5 Feb 1990 14:05:57
---
     *   day_number-month_name-year time

	5-Feb-1990 14:05:57
---
     *   day_name, day_number-month_name-year time

	Mon, 5-Feb-1990 14:05:57
===

Any help you can send along is appreciated, but please don't bombard me
with mail unless you have some idea what you're talking about, or can
show me an example of one of the time-zone-less formats above showing
where the timezone can be found.  Thanks!
-- 
Bart Schaefer          "February.  The hangnail on the big toe of the year."
                                                                    -- Duffy

schaefer@cse.ogi.edu (used to be cse.ogc.edu)