Hello Maurice!

18 Dec 20 06:36, you wrote to me:

 MK> Just a little something to brighten your day and perhaps spark much
 MK> needed participation in this particular echoarea, or whatever the kids
 MK> are calling it these days.

 MK> proposed DateTime = a string 19 bytes long.
 MK>                     Format = "YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss" where,
 MK>                               YYYY = four digit year
 MK>                               MM   = two digit month ranging from 01
 MK> to 12
 MK>                               DD   = two digit day ranging from 01 to
 MK> 31
 MK>                               hh   = two digit hour ranging from 00 to
 MK> 23
 MK>                               mm   = two digit minute ranging from 00
 MK> to 59
 MK>                               ss   = two digit second ranging from 00
 MK> to 59

 MK> Since there is no room for the UTC offset DateTime should be set to
 MK> UTC in order to avoid confusion.  This format will ensure that the
 MK> packed message is exactly the same byte length as specified in
 MK> fts-0001.016 not counting the ASCII null charater that terminates the
 MK> string as per packed MSG header specification for all header strings
 MK> (eg To, From, subj, etc).

While I can see the merits of your proposal, it currently is not implemented 
in any FidoNet compatible software.  Current FidoNet software that parses the 
DateTime field would need to be updated to support this new format.  For 
compatibility with existing FidoNet software, implementations would need to be 
able to parse this format, or the 2 other existing formats (FTS-1 or SeaDog.) 
In addition, to avoid breaking existing software, this format should not be 
used in packets without confirming that the software on the other end can 
process it correctly.

Given that many software packages used in FidoNet have been abandoned, had 
their source code lost, or the authors are no longer available, it is not 
likely that this format will succeed.

Your best shot is to convince the maintainers of existing packages which are 
still being developed, such as HPT, D'Bridge, MBSEBBS, Synchronet, and Mystic 
of the merits of your proposal, and get it implemented.  Several of these 
packages are open source, so you could conceivably implement it yourself and 
submit patches to the maintainers for consideration.

As for the use of UTC in packet headers, again you are fighting an uphill 
battle.  The TZUTC kludge line was created because the .MSG and .PKT headers 
had no provision for timezone offsets.

Andrew

--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707