BUG in CONVERT command - or I can't tell the time

[Dar Scott]

On Monday, April 22, 2002, at 05:53 AM, Michael D Mays wrote:

> When it is 12 midnight in Edinburgh (GMT) it is 6:00 PM the day 
> before here
> in Dallas (CST) (no daylight savings time).

I haven't been reading my mail well, Michael.  When I read Ian's 
mail the first time I thought he was complaining that he didn't get 
the offset.  When I read your's I thought you said he shouldn't.  
My cryptic one line response was not up to the job and your 
description did well.

> IMO, date and time formats should only be used to display dates 
> and times.
> Aside from formatting issues, as illustrated here time and date 
> formats have
> 'hidden parameters' such as where (time zone) and when (daylight 
> savings
> time) associated with them.

Daylight savings time seems to be applied in an interesting 
manner.  It seems it is applied if the time is in daylight savings 
time at the moment of calculation rather than the time/date being 
converted, even for the current year.  To do otherwise might be 
very hard, especially for future years, when the rules might have 
changed even again.

It would be nice if these hidden parameters could optionally be 
supplied.

How does one get the time zone and daylight savings settings?

Dar Scott