[tz] [PATCH 4/4] yellow flags

[Andrew Paprocki]

On Tue, Aug 13, 2013 at 5:32 PM, Paul Eggert <eggert at cs.ucla.edu> wrote:

> No real reduction in quality is being proposed.
>  There's no significant difference in behavior between
> the current and proposed data.
>
>
Making a change such as:

-HR     +4548+01558     Europe/Zagreb
+HR     +4548+01558     Europe/Belgrade

is a drastic difference in behavior for end users, even if it does not
affect the actual time displayed on the screen. To the *end user* this is
both a "reduction in quality" and "significant difference", to use your
words, as this string will appear on their screen in fairly common software
applications. Whether we like it or not, these strings are used in UX
around the world. Strings with words were chosen as identifiers instead of
integers, hex numbers, or some other computable form because they're easy
for a human to grok, remember, and reference. Words, of course, can be
associated with feelings.

Striving for technical purity doesn't obviate the need for common sense.
Common sense dictated that the zones be broken up so that each country had
an identifier in zone.tab to avoid confusion (or other feelings). Common
sense dictates they should remain that way. It is hard to specify and
codify common sense, which is why there is a place to have (hopefully)
civilized discourse. Personally, I do not feel that zone identifier
modifications occur frequently enough to eschew this common sense. Others
may disagree, so I'd like to see opinions on the list from anyone else who
*favors* the change made above and all others in the proposed patch.

-Andrew
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