[tz] tabs vs spaces

[Guy Harris]

On May 3, 2013, at 9:49 AM, random832 at fastmail.us wrote:

> I've been sitting on an idea for a proposal to extend the format,
> actually, to support localized timezone names and/or keys for looking up
> such localized information in a database such as CLDR.

Keys such as, say, "metazone names"?

If we could indicate what metazone a time zone is in for a given date/time range, that might let the CLDR not keep its own list of moves of time zones between metazones (see common/supplemental/metaZones.xml in the CLDR).

I'd personally prefer that the tz database *not* provide localized time zone names; I see that as yet another opportunity for tons of complaints about our choices.

> and B) to remove the need to
> immediately update and deploy a new version of CLDR if a new zone is
> added or changes to a different named timezone (e.g. timezones in
> indiana moving from eastern to central a few years ago)

Yes, I'd like to see the CLDR have the job of giving information such as localized time zone names for metazones and abbreviations, and *not* have to care about America/Whereever waking up some day and deciding to move from Eastern Time to Central Time - the TZ database should indicate that the zone in question moved from metazone America_Eastern to metazone America_Central.