[tpm] TZ code to hour offset conversion ideas?

[Madison Kelly]

Hi all,

   I want to create a simple ... "library"? ... to provide data for a 
simple method do say:

my $offset=&get_tz_offset("est", "1998-06-15");

   I've got the TZ data from: http://www.twinsun.com/tz/tz-link.htm

   It would need to be parsed though, and this I am hoping I can avoid 
by downloading an existing parser (I am not too concerned how this 
parser actually dumps data, I can hack that up). I just need something 
like: "For TZ X in date Y, the offset is Z".

   I am not sure if I will need the geographic data, as I am not trying 
to determine what the TZ is, that's given to me. I just need the offset 
for the given date.

Any suggestions? Should I start hacking up a parser myself? Do I ask too 
many questions? :)

Madi