🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <5kcnhc$cqi@bhars12c.bnr.co.uk> adsb@bnr.co.uk "Andrew Benham" writes:

> Another problem is that:
> 
> >        /* Are we in DST? */
> >
> >        if (now < dst_start || now >= std_start)
> >                return (0);
> 
> assumes that   dst_start < std_start   which is only true in the Northern
> Hemisphere. E.g. if DST starts in October, and STD starts in April, then
> the test goes wrong.

I didn't look very closely at the code in tzset.c (yet) but I think you
raise a very good point. Too many assumptions in code leads to
unpredictable programs, especially when the assumptions are
'hidden' and/or undocumented. (e.g. all characters between 'A' and 'Z'
have contiguous 8-bit codes: true in ASCII but not in EBCDIC).

In my opinion the complete DST-issue seems wasteful: why have DST at all?
(this is a retorical question).

Of course the code you quote could easily be modified to return the correct
value, e.g.

    if ((now < dst_start || std_start <= now) ^ (std_start < dst_start))
        return(0);

but that is beside the point I guess.

--Peter Fokker