OSF DCE Application Development Guide--Core Components

Introduction to the Distributed Time Service API
associated with the time.
Although DTS displays all times in the previous format, variations to the ISO format
shown in Figure 19-2 are also accepted as input for the ASCII conversion routines.
Figure 19-2. Variations to the ISO Time Format
CCYY−MM−DDThh:mm:ss,fff[+|−]hh:mm
ss,fff
+
−
Inaccuracy
component
TDF
component
Calendar date and time
component
fractions
seconds
Inaccuracy
designator
minutes
hours
+| − TDF
Century
Year
Month
Day
Time
designator
hour
minute
second
fraction
In this figure, the Time (T) designator separates the calendar date from the time, a ,
(comma) separates seconds from fractional seconds, and the + or - indicates the
beginning of the inaccuracy component.
The following examples show some valid time formats.
The following represents July 4, 1776 17:01 GMT and an unspecified inaccuracy
(default):
1776-7-4-17:01:00
The following represents a local time of 12:01 (17:01 GMT) on July 4, 1776 with a TDF
of -5 hours and an inaccuracy of 100 seconds:
1776-7-4-12:01:00-05:00I100
Both of the following represent 12:00 GMT in the current day, month, and year with an
unspecified inaccuracy:
12:00 and T12
The following represents July 14, 1792 00:00 GMT with an unspecified inaccuracy:
1792-7-14
19.1.2 Relative Time Representation
A relative time is a discrete time interval that is usually added to or subtracted from
another time. A TDF associated with an absolute time is one example of a relative time.
124245 Tandem Computers Incorporated 19−3