[tz] Creston

[Tim Parenti]

Like Chris Walton, Philip Newton, and Alan Barrett, I prefer the inclusion
of all the "zone changes," even if they didn't result in clock changes.
Although, in the time period we're discussing, broadcast schedules weren't
really a factor, this still seems to me to be how people travelling through
the area (by railroad, for instance) would think of the time... not in
terms of UTC, but rather in terms of offsets from the surrounding zones.
Knowing if one's time was "in line" with the bulk of the Pacific zone or
the Mountain Zone would be important, even if that effect is caused by
everyone else changing their clocks, not you.

While the differences in semantics may not be strictly of horological
relevance, they certainly are of cultural relevance.  And while it may not
have been the tz database's original purpose to be a literary history of
world timekeeping, any brief glance at the comments shows that it has
gradually assumed this dual purpose over time.  (And I am not the only one
to have noticed this:
http://blog.jonudell.net/2009/10/23/a-literary-appreciation-of-the-olsonzoneinfotz-database/)
I think we should do our best to preserve these little tidbits wherever it
is reasonable to do so, and looking through the discussion thusfar, it
seems that this is where consensus lies.

That said, I realize we are very close to the release of 2012a, that this
is low-priority, that what we currently have on the table is "good enough"
to get the correct clock time, and that it will be commented to note the
ongoing discussion.  But as Zefram said, "it's important enough to get it
right," so I support Robert Elz's proposal to add the additional rules in
the next release.

--
Tim Parenti
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