[plt-scheme] GMT date stamps and time-zone-offset

Thanks Richard and Geoffrey,

> On Aug 19, 2007, at 13:16, Jens Axel Søgaard wrote:
>> The function seconds->date-string below is supposed to
>> return a data stamp using GMT. At first I thought I
>> were to adjust for summer time, but it seems that
>> happens automatically. But to be on the safe side, I'd
>> appreciate, if you try running the snippet below.
> 
> I ran your code on 370.6-svn25jul2007 [3m] and got:
> "Sun, 19 Aug 2007 20:56:41 GMT" -- which is correct.
> 
> I would have expected UTC (modern) instead of GMT (traditional).  

I need the time stamp in a setting where GMT is expected.

> I 
> never understood why UTC has to be an anagram for both Coordinated 
> Universal Time (English) and Temps Universel Coordonné (French).  I 
> suspected it was a compromise to make the English and French equally 
> miserable, and Wikipedia says as much.  

:-)

> "Coordinated universal time a 
> été abrégé en UTC, au lieu de CUT correspondant à l'acronyme en anglais 
> ou de TUC correspondant à l'acronyme en français. En effet, si les 
> experts de l'UIT étaient d'accord pour définir une abréviation commune à 
> toutes les langues, ils étaient divisés sur le choix de la langue. 
> Finalement, c'est le compromis UTC, nécessitant un effort des deux 
> parties, qui fut choisi." [1]
> 
> Geoffrey  (planetarium lecturer in the 1970s)
> 
> [1] http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temps_universel_coordonné

The subject of time has to put it mildly been convoluted. To me the
most curious time related concept is leap seconds.

-- 
Jens Axel Søgaard