[tz] Proposed reversions, for moving forward

Tim Parenti tim at timtimeonline.com
Sat Aug 9 00:13:26 UTC 2014


On 8 August 2014 19:51, Paul Eggert <eggert at cs.ucla.edu> wrote:

> Timekeeping simply wasn't that accurate back then.  The changes in
> question alter timestamps by a few minutes in areas where timekeeping was
> so sloppy that people at the time wouldn't have noticed or cared about the
> change.


These comments, along with the rest of your message, help greatly in my
personal understanding.  I can't speak for the others, but I think that
this articulates much of what I have been missing.

On 8 August 2014 19:51, Paul Eggert <eggert at cs.ucla.edu> wrote:

> there is no such thing as "removing" data from an end user's perspective
>>
>
> This objection would have merit if end users cared about this data to
> 1-second precision.  But they don't.  And they're right to not care.


Really, the only "losses" I can think of would be to those who converted
ancient timestamps to UNIX time and simply stored them away in a dusty
database without a second thought.  The losses they incur with these
changes may well be their own fault for not adhering to best practices
(which we should also try to encourage), but we should at least weigh the
effects on even shoddy implementations.  Perhaps this was indeed
considered, but this wasn't clear.  I still think being more proactive in
discussing the content of proposed changes before committing them would
help, but moving forward with a secondary area for suspect data sidesteps
that issue somewhat.

I wholeheartedly agree that, for the vast majority of applications,
cultures, and traditions, people would be right not to care about this.
But I will simply restate for the record that I find any arguments that
they do or don't to be pretty weak.  Fortunately, from the rest of your
response, I am (mostly) satisfied, provided we do indeed aim to move
forward with a secondary area for data of dubious provenance.

--
Tim Parenti
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