[tz] Archived Rule names

[Robert Elz]

    Date:        Mon, 28 Jan 2013 13:02:45 +0000
    From:        "Osko, Galatea" <Galatea.Osko at morganstanley.com>
    Message-ID:  <45DF782DF3A8CF429AFEE49ED2F9FF700B903BBC at OZWEX0202N2.msad.ms.com>

  | Is there a list of outdated rule names that are not in use anymore?

Is there a reason anyone would care?   tzdata rule names are purely an
internal cross-referencing mechanism, and have no other use whatever.

  | I found rule name "oz" which is supposed to be a code for Australia

I don't recall oz ever being used in the tz context.   It was once
one of the pseudo TLDs (like .bitnet .csnet and others) - back in the
early 1980's, and is still a sub-domain of .au (as my e-mail address
kind of indicates), but was never used for tz purposes that I can remember
(since Australia doesn't have a timezone,  the Australian states and
territories do, naming rules after Australia (even its colloquial nickname)
wouldn't make a lot of sense.

  | however the tiscali only mentions AN, AS and some other similar codes.

I don't recognise the reference, but AN AS (etc) (Aust NSW, Aust South-Aus)
have been used forever - those (as rule names) relate to the various Aust
states, which is appropriate given the way Aust manages time.

  | I assume this is a historical code

Why?   From where does that assumption originate?

  | I have problems with some other as well:
  | C-Eur
  | AQ
  | E-EurAsia

AQ is antarctica, and may have once been used as a rule name for that,
once, perhaps, if there was a time when we believed that antarctica had
a single timezone.  The others may have been used once too.

But why would you care, even if so.  The rule names, without the associated
rules, and references to them, are simply meaningless strings of characters.

kre