"RE" == Ron Emaus <remaus(_at_)great-lakes(_dot_)net> writes:
RE> Is there a standard format for the Date: field in email messages?
Yes, it is very strictly defined. From RFC822:
date-time = [ day "," ] date time ; dd mm yy
; hh:mm:ss zzz
day = "Mon" / "Tue" / "Wed" / "Thu"
/ "Fri" / "Sat" / "Sun"
date = 1*2DIGIT month 2DIGIT ; day month year
; e.g. 20 Jun 82
month = "Jan" / "Feb" / "Mar" / "Apr"
/ "May" / "Jun" / "Jul" / "Aug"
/ "Sep" / "Oct" / "Nov" / "Dec"
time = hour zone ; ANSI and Military
hour = 2DIGIT ":" 2DIGIT [":" 2DIGIT]
; 00:00:00 - 23:59:59
zone = "UT" / "GMT" ; Universal Time
; North American : UT
/ "EST" / "EDT" ; Eastern: - 5/ - 4
/ "CST" / "CDT" ; Central: - 6/ - 5
/ "MST" / "MDT" ; Mountain: - 7/ - 6
/ "PST" / "PDT" ; Pacific: - 8/ - 7
/ 1ALPHA ; Military: Z = UT;
; A:-1; (J not used)
; M:-12; N:+1; Y:+12
/ ( ("+" / "-") 4DIGIT ) ; Local differential
; hours+min. (HHMM)
This was, I believe, later extended to permit 4 digit year numbers and to
permit both an offset and a parenthesized zone name for the time zone.
RE> Is this a Wordperfect problem or is this the Burroughs gateway altering
RE> the header?
Who knows? Generally the user agent generates Date:, but sometimes a
transfer agent will add one of it isn't present. You do find a bunch of
software, generally but not always on the PC platforms, which completely
ignores the standards. I say too bad.
RE> It would be nice to find a fix short of asking the state government to
RE> change their software.
Well, you have the source code. The relevant function is parse_date in
lib/mhutil.pl. It's relatively simple now because the standard is so
rigidly defined, but it can be hacked as much as necessary.
--
Jason L. Tibbitts III - tibbs(_at_)uh(_dot_)edu - 713/743-8684 - 221SR1
System Manager: University of Houston High Performance Computing Center
1994 PC800 "Kuroneko" DoD# 1723
