[tz] [PATCH 2/3] Replace some zones with links when that doesn't lose non-LMT info.

[Meno Hochschild]

    *Paul Eggert* eggert at cs.ucla.edu
    <mailto:tz%40iana.org?Subject=Re:%20Re%3A%20%5Btz%5D%20%5BPATCH%202/3%5D%20Replace%20some%20zones%20with%20links%20when%20that%0A%20doesn%27t%20lose%20non-LMT%20info.&In-Reply-To=%3C522616ED.6060902%40cs.ucla.edu%3E>
    /Tue Sep 3 17:05:49 UTC 2013/

    Lester Caine wrote: >/can we at least agree that the quality of the
    material is heading in the right direction? / Yes, that's the idea.


While I personally have no problem with tidy-up of obviously wrong data 
and also agree that correction of mistakes is more important than 
stability (which has never been absolutely pretended), I think end-users 
of tzdb should get a better opportunity to estimate how reliable the 
data are and how much trust they can put in their time zone calculations.

Offsets in LMT-lines can easily be qualified as UNKNOWN. For the 
proposed date of 1970 as general separation point between UNSAFE and 
(apparently) RELIABLE I am not so sure. Would it not be helpful for 
end-users if there is an additional year-type attribute per zone which 
tells the users since when the data can be confirmed with high 
probability of correctness? Would require about 400+ attributes (ok, 
1970 as default). I am sure for example in UK or in Germany the data are 
correct even a pretty while before 1970. Flexibility would be a good 
thing, isn't it? External APIs could support the users with this extra 
quality information per offset and make them better aware that 
historical tz data are not set in stone.

Just giving a thought...
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