[tz] Large scale changes proposed in 2014f

Paul Eggert eggert at cs.ucla.edu
Tue Aug 5 16:07:47 UTC 2014


Marc Lehmann wrote:
> I haven't seen anybody argue the new data is better.

It appears you overlooked some arguments in that direction; see 
<http://mm.icann.org/pipermail/tz/2014-August/021283.html> for example.

> The only argument that trivially stands in favour is that it decreases
> maintainance burden

Decreasing maintenance burden is not trivial.  As the principal 
maintainer I feel the burden more than most, and it's a burden I'd 
rather lighten before handing it off to my successor.

I believe the data entries in question were mostly invented, perhaps to 
give customers the warm feeling that there are specific answers for 
everything (even when there aren't).  Unless one has investigated the 
matter it may be hard to fully appreciate how misleading these data 
entries are, or how pointless and demoralizing it is to curate bogus 
data.  We can't avoid the invented-data problem entirely (as the format 
requires *something* there), but it's good to lessen it when we can.


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