Re: UNRELATED: Time on messages

Shaul,

when the message is sent to or from your computer, the date should be
given on a header line with a very strict format, like

        Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1999 09:57:01 +0200

This is what the standard says, and only very old mail programs
violate it. Now, this time is expressed in some computer's local time
(usually the sender's), and the +0200 part gives the offset of that
local time from UTC in hours and minutes. The same time could be
written as

        Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1999 07:57:01 +0000  (UTC, GMT, WET)
        Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 23:57:01 -0800  (PST)

(If you look at the Recieved: headers on list mail, you'll see a time
zone given as EST instead of -0500. This means that `IBM VM SMTP V2R4'
is a very old program :). On the other hand, a time zone name/abbrev
in parentheses is legal --- it's just a comment.)

However, it is very likely that your mail program (especially if it is
GUIfied like Netscape or Outlook) will hide the header line from you
and present the time in a different format. It may convert the time to
your local time (good, if you know what happens); it may just strip
off the time zone info (bad); or it may even try to convert to your
local time and get the sign wrong! (I've seen that happen).

Find a way to look at the full headers on some messages and compare
them to the times you see in the summary or whatever. Then you will
know how to interpret the latter.

Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)