dates and their representation

[Werner Koch]

Some clarification:

 - times are always stored in UTC. This is required by OpenPGP and
   nothing else would make sense.  Telling which timezone has been
   used to create a message is out of the scopenof gnupg - the
   mail headers may tell you this.

 - Who cares about the timezone anyway.  I think in CE[S]T  because I
   live here and I use this timezone for my calendar too :-).  

 - It is convenient to display localized times and if there is enough
   room on the screen the current timezone may also be displayed. 

 - I think of the key creation time as an attribute of the key (and it
   is one because it gets signed) like number of bits, algorithm,
   fingerprint.  Because of that I think the time should be displayed 
   in UTC in all key listings.
    A: "okay, I have here your key: 1024 bits, DSA created on 1998-09-01"
    B: "Oops, that is not my key, I created it 1998-08-31"
   This may happen if A and B are in different timezones.

 - If a program gives more detailed or better formatted information
   about a key it should display the time in the preferred localized
   format, which would be 
         Dienstag 23 September 1998  MESZ
   in Germany (or another recognized format) or
         Monday September 23rd 1998  PST
   somewhere else.

 - The documentation should tell that the times which are listed are
   always in YYYY-MM-DD format and in UTC.   



Werner