Supplying names for timezones in the data files

[Paul Eggert]

   Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 12:23:43 -0400
   From: Garrett Wollman <wollman at lcs.mit.edu>

   > 	Link America/New_York	Coords/+404251-0740023
   > 	Link America/New_York	Descrips/US_Eastern_time

   I need the countries separated out, and it would be nice to allow
   text in the description that is not a POSIX portable filename.

Presumably the country could be the first 2 characters of the description,
but I agree the character set (and length!) limitations are a bit much.

I did play with the idea of putting the zone.tab data into the current
tz data files themselves.  This would be an incompatible change to the
data file format, but it would have the advantage of having all the
data associated with a Zone entry in one file, and minimizing
duplication of strings like `America/Los_Angeles'.  However, I
couldn't find a format that I liked.  Instead, I wrote a little
program that checks for consistency between zone.tab and the
traditional tz data files.

To give you a feeling for what the data look like, here are my draft
zone.tab entries for Canada and the US (the two most complicated
countries).  Order is important, since entries should be presented to
the user in that order.  The practical limit to the comments
column is 75 characters -- I discovered this after I wrote a time zone
selector and tested it on a 24x80 window.

(This table is easier to read if you set your tab stops to every 24 characters.)

CA	+4734-05243	America/St_Johns	Newfoundland Island
CA	+4439-06336	America/Halifax	Atlantic Time - Nova Scotia (most locations), New Brunswick, Labrador & PEI
CA	+4612-05957	America/Glace_Bay	Atlantic Time - Nova Scotia - places that did not observe DST 1966-1971
CA	+6608-06544	America/Pangnirtung	Atlantic Time - Northwest Territories
CA	+4531-07334	America/Montreal	Eastern Time - Ontario & Quebec - most locations
CA	+4901-08816	America/Nipigon	Eastern Time - Ontario & Quebec - places that did not observe DST 1967-1973
CA	+4823-08915	America/Thunder_Bay	Eastern Time - Thunder Bay, Ontario
CA	+6344-06828	America/Iqaluit	Eastern Time - Northwest Territories
CA	+4953-09709	America/Winnipeg	Central Time - Manitoba & west Ontario
CA	+4843-09429	America/Rainy_River	Central Time - Rainy River & Fort Frances, Ontario
CA	+6245-09210	America/Rankin_Inlet	Central Time - Northwest Territories
CA	+5024-10439	America/Regina	Central Standard Time - Saskatchewan - most locations
CA	+5017-10750	America/Swift_Current	Central Standard Time - Saskatchewan - midwest
CA	+5333-11328	America/Edmonton	Mountain Time - Alberta, east British Columbia & west Saskatchewan
CA	+6227-11421	America/Yellowknife	Mountain Time - central Northwest Territories
CA	+6825-11330	America/Inuvik	Mountain Time - west Northwest Territories
CA	+5946-12014	America/Dawson_Creek	Mountain Standard Time - Dawson Creek & Fort Saint John, British Columbia
CA	+4916-12307	America/Vancouver	Pacific Time - west British Columbia
CA	+6043-13503	America/Whitehorse	Pacific Time - south Yukon
CA	+6404-13925	America/Dawson	Pacific Time - north Yukon

US	+404251-0740023	America/New_York	Eastern Time
US	+421953-0830245	America/Detroit	Eastern Time - Michigan - most locations
US	+381515-0854534	America/Louisville	Eastern Time - Louisville, Kentucky
US	+394606-0860929	America/Indianapolis	Eastern Standard Time - Indiana - most locations
US	+382232-0862041	America/Indiana/Marengo	Eastern Standard Time - Indiana - Crawford County
US	+411745-0863730	America/Indiana/Knox	Eastern Standard Time - Indiana - Starke County
US	+384452-0850402	America/Indiana/Vevay	Eastern Standard Time - Indiana - Switzerland County
US	+415100-0873900	America/Chicago	Central Time
US	+450628-0873651	America/Menominee	Central Time - Michigan - Wisconsin border
US	+394421-1045903	America/Denver	Mountain Time
US	+433649-1161209	America/Boise	Mountain Time - south Idaho & east Oregon
US	+364708-1084111	America/Shiprock	Mountain Time - Navajo
US	+332654-1120424	America/Phoenix	Mountain Standard Time - Arizona
US	+340308-1181434	America/Los_Angeles	Pacific Time
US	+611305-1495401	America/Anchorage	Alaska Time
US	+581807-1342511	America/Juneau	Alaska Time - Alaska panhandle
US	+593249-1394338	America/Yakutat	Alaska Time - Alaska panhandle neck
US	+643004-1652423	America/Nome	Alaska Time - west Alaska
US	+515248-1763929	America/Adak	Aleutian Islands
US	+211825-1575130	Pacific/Honolulu	Hawaii