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

[Guy Harris]

On Sep 4, 2013, at 2:23 PM, Garrett Wollman <wollman at csail.mit.edu> wrote:

> I do think, on a more general level, that it is a bit unfortunate that
> the format of the tzdata files is now effectively frozen because so
> many external users have chosen to parse the source rather than the
> compiled form.  This will make it much more difficult to make changes
> in the future, should they be needed.

If we want to do that (e.g., if we were to introduce the CLDR concept of meta-zones into the tzdb, so that the CLDR doesn't have to duplicate transition time/date information that's in the tzdb - see the usesMetazone items in metaZones.xml), we might end up creating a new source file format and have a tool that reads the new format and emits the old format.