🚀 go-pugleaf

On Thu, 10 Apr 2003 19:31:37 +0000 (UTC), JHB@jita.nospam.demon.co.uk
(Jim Backus) wrote:

>It seems that MSDOS 6.x is aware of time zones. If the environment 
>variable TZ is not set, it apparently assumes that it is operating 
>under Pacific time zone. I haven't fully explored how this version of 
>MSDOS uses the time zone information - it doesn't change the date and 
>time, but it does have an effect on programmes that are time 
>sensitive.
>
>If anyone here has any detailed knowledge on what this version of DOS 
>does with the TZ variable, could you post it? All I could find on the 
>web related to operation of PGP and time stamping of usenet messages.

   The answer is "very little".  Few progs knew how to check the TZ
variable, and, to make it worse, M$ tended to format this in a
non-standard way.

   IMHO, unless you are running an app that *very clearly* states what
it is expecting from TZ (eg Demon's old version of KA9Q) do *NOT*
expect anything to get it right. This includes most M$ apps.

   MS-DOS was **** at timezones, chiefly because M$ didn't understand
them.  The nasty legacy is still with us now.

   Why is this important?  There are better/other ways of dealing with
this.  The most useful is to set the PC clock to localtime, as this is
what nearly all M$ apps of that era expected.

   Regards,
         Harry.