[tz] [PATCH] The word "data" is plural.

Paul Eggert eggert at cs.ucla.edu
Wed Aug 13 05:27:13 UTC 2014


Russ Allbery wrote:
> The question is whether data is still treated as the plural of datum, or
> whether it's converted into being a mass noun in its own right.

Thanks for mentioning that.  To try to head this dispute off at the pass 
the attached new patch (pushed into the experimental version) rewords 
everything so that the word "data" is never used in a context that 
requires it to be plural, or that requires it to be plural either.
-------------- next part --------------
From 198708147f6b1fd81d76e501ef1f91b8e0bba6ea Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Paul Eggert <eggert at cs.ucla.edu>
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 22:20:23 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] Reword so that it does not matter whether the word "data" is
 plural.

---
 NEWS         | 18 +++++++++---------
 README       |  2 +-
 Theory       | 18 +++++++++---------
 africa       |  5 +++--
 antarctica   |  2 +-
 asia         | 12 ++++++------
 backzone     |  6 +++---
 europe       |  2 +-
 newctime.3   |  4 ++--
 northamerica |  2 +-
 southamerica | 14 +++++++-------
 tz-link.htm  |  6 +++---
 tzfile.5     |  6 +++---
 zone.tab     |  4 ++--
 zone1970.tab |  4 ++--
 15 files changed, 53 insertions(+), 52 deletions(-)

diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 9765e56..f7033cc 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ Unreleased, experimental changes
     Some more zones have been turned into links, when they differed
     from existing zones only for older time stamps.  As usual,
     these changes affect UTC offsets in pre-1970 time stamps only.
-    Their old data have been moved to the 'backzone' file.
+    Their old contents have been moved to the 'backzone' file.
     The affected zones are: Africa/Bangui, Africa/Brazzaville,
     Africa/Douala, Africa/Kinshasa, Africa/Libreville, Africa/Luanda,
     Africa/Malabo, Africa/Niamey, and Africa/Porto-Novo.
@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ Release 2014f - 2014-08-05 17:42:36 -0700
     Treindl sent helpful translations of two papers by Guo Qingsheng.)
 
     Some zones have been turned into links, when they differed from existing
-    zones only for older UTC offsets where the data were likely invented.
+    zones only for older UTC offsets where data entries were likely invented.
     These changes affect UTC offsets in pre-1970 time stamps only.  This is
     similar to the change in release 2013e, except this time for western
     Africa.  The affected zones are: Africa/Bamako, Africa/Banjul,
@@ -427,7 +427,7 @@ Release 2014a - 2014-03-07 23:30:29 -0800
 
       Microsoft has some support for tz database names.
 
-      CLDR data are available in both XML and JSON form.
+      CLDR data formats include both XML and JSON.
 
       Mention Maggiolo's map of solar vs standard time.
       (Thanks to Arthur David Olson.)
@@ -670,8 +670,8 @@ Release 2013e - 2013-09-19 23:50:04 -0700
     Pacific/Johnston is now a link to Pacific/Honolulu.  This corrects
     some errors before 1947.
 
-    Some zones have been turned into links, when they differ from
-    existing zones only in older data that were likely invented or that
+    Some zones have been turned into links, when they differ from existing
+    zones only in older data entries that were likely invented or that
     differ only in LMT or transitions from LMT.  These changes affect
     only time stamps before 1943.  The affected zones are:
     Africa/Juba, America/Anguilla, America/Aruba, America/Dominica,
@@ -748,7 +748,7 @@ Release 2013e - 2013-09-19 23:50:04 -0700
 
     Remove from zone.tab the names America/Montreal, America/Shiprock,
     and Antarctica/South_Pole, as they are equivalent to existing
-    same-country-code zones for post-1970 time stamps.  The data for
+    same-country-code zones for post-1970 time stamps.  The data entries for
     these names are unchanged, so the names continue to work as before.
 
   Changes affecting code internals
@@ -2543,8 +2543,8 @@ Release 94h - 1994-12-10 12:51:14 -0500
 	data files.
 
   Think of this as "TZ Classic" - the software has been set up not to break if
-  universal time shows up in its input, and the data have been left as is so as
-  not to break existing implementations.
+  universal time shows up in its input, and data entries have been
+  left as is so as not to break existing implementations.
 
 
 Release data94f - 1994-08-20 12:56:09 -0400
@@ -2623,7 +2623,7 @@ Release 93f - 1993-10-15 12:27:46 -0400
 
 Release 93e - 1993-09-05 21:21:44 -0400
 
-  There are updated data for Israel, England, and Kwajalein; there's
+  This has updated data for Israel, England, and Kwajalein.  There's
   also an update to "zdump" to cope with Kwajalein's 24-hour jump.
   Thanks to Paul Eggert and Peter Ilieve for the changes.
 
diff --git a/README b/README
index 6c685b7..06ef1d9 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ substituting your desired installation directory for "$HOME/tzdir":
 Historical local time information has been included here to:
 
 *	provide a compendium of data about the history of civil time
-	that is useful even if the data are not 100% accurate;
+	that is useful even if not 100% accurate;
 
 *	give an idea of the variety of local time rules that have
 	existed in the past and thus an idea of the variety that may be
diff --git a/Theory b/Theory
index 15c695e..a16ce3e 100644
--- a/Theory
+++ b/Theory
@@ -223,7 +223,7 @@ before computer timekeeping became prevalent.
 
 Clock transitions before 1970 are recorded for each such location,
 because most POSIX-compatible systems support negative time stamps and
-could misbehave if data were omitted for pre-1970 transitions.
+could misbehave if data entries were omitted for pre-1970 transitions.
 However, the database is not designed for and does not suffice for
 applications requiring accurate handling of all past times everywhere,
 as it would take far too much effort and guesswork to record all
@@ -246,7 +246,7 @@ Errors in the tz database arise from many sources:
    daylight saving rules, software can mess up after the rule change
    if it blithely relies on conversions made before the change.
 
- * The pre-1970 data in this database cover only a tiny sliver of how
+ * The pre-1970 entries in this database cover only a tiny sliver of how
    clocks actually behaved; the vast majority of the necessary
    information was lost or never recorded.  Thousands more zones would
    be needed if the tz database's scope were extended to cover even
@@ -254,12 +254,12 @@ Errors in the tz database arise from many sources:
    the current single entry for France would need to split into dozens
    of entries, perhaps hundreds.
 
- * Most of the pre-1970 data come from unreliable sources, often
+ * Most of the pre-1970 data entries come from unreliable sources, often
    astrology books that lack citations and whose compilers evidently
    invented entries when the true facts were unknown, without
    reporting which entries were known and which were invented.
    These books often contradict each other or give implausible entries,
-   and on the rare occasions when their old data are checked they are
+   and on the rare occasions when they are checked they are
    typically found to be incorrect.
 
  * For the UK the tz database relies on years of first-class work done by
@@ -282,8 +282,8 @@ Errors in the tz database arise from many sources:
    transition to GMT is known to be valid only for the L&NW and the
    Caledonian railways.
 
- * The tz database does not record the earliest time for which a
-   zone's data are thereafter valid for every location in the region.
+ * The tz database does not record the earliest time for which a zone's
+   data entries are thereafter valid for every location in the region.
    For example, Europe/London is valid for all locations in its
    region after GMT was made the standard time, but the date of
    standardization (1880-08-02) is not in the tz database, other than
@@ -324,8 +324,8 @@ Errors in the tz database arise from many sources:
    the Julian calendar, and had 12 varying-length daytime hours with a
    non-hour-based system at night.
 
- * Early clocks were less reliable, and the data do not represent this
-   unreliability.
+ * Early clocks were less reliable, and data entries do not represent
+   this unreliability.
 
  * As for leap seconds, civil time was not based on atomic time before
    1972, and we don't know the history of earth's rotation accurately
@@ -345,7 +345,7 @@ Errors in the tz database arise from many sources:
    a leap second, or are slightly slowed while near a leap second.
 
  * The tz database does not represent how uncertain its information is.
-   Ideally it would contain information about when the data are
+   Ideally it would contain information about when data entries are
    incomplete or dicey.  Partial temporal knowledge is a field of
    active research, though, and it's not clear how to apply it here.
 
diff --git a/africa b/africa
index 7e3a860..5c9c4f8 100644
--- a/africa
+++ b/africa
@@ -415,7 +415,8 @@ Zone	Africa/Asmara	2:35:32 -	LMT	1870
 # Shanks & Pottenger write that Ethiopia had six narrowly-spaced time
 # zones between 1870 and 1890, that they merged to 38E50 (2:35:20) in
 # 1890, and that they switched to 3:00 on 1936-05-05.  Perhaps 38E50
-# was for Adis Dera.  Quite likely the Shanks data are wrong anyway.
+# was for Adis Dera.  Quite likely the Shanks data entries are wrong
+# anyway.
 # Zone	NAME		GMTOFF	RULES	FORMAT	[UNTIL]
 Zone Africa/Addis_Ababa	2:34:48 -	LMT	1870
 			2:35:20	-	ADMT	1936 May 5    # Adis Dera MT
@@ -536,7 +537,7 @@ Zone	Africa/Tripoli	0:52:44 -	LMT	1920
 			2:00	-	EET	1982
 			1:00	Libya	CE%sT	1990 May  4
 # The 1996 and 1997 entries are from Shanks & Pottenger;
-# the IATA SSIM data contain some obvious errors.
+# the IATA SSIM data entries contain some obvious errors.
 			2:00	-	EET	1996 Sep 30
 			1:00	Libya	CE%sT	1997 Oct  4
 			2:00	-	EET	2012 Nov 10  2:00
diff --git a/antarctica b/antarctica
index 4d24ceb..36bbb83 100644
--- a/antarctica
+++ b/antarctica
@@ -154,7 +154,7 @@ Zone Antarctica/Mawson	0	-	zzz	1954 Feb 13
 # France - year-round bases (also see "France & Italy")
 #
 # From Antoine Leca (1997-01-20):
-# Time data are from Nicole Pailleau at the IFRTP
+# Time data entries are from Nicole Pailleau at the IFRTP
 # (French Institute for Polar Research and Technology).
 # She confirms that French Southern Territories and Terre Adélie bases
 # don't observe daylight saving time, even if Terre Adélie supplies came
diff --git a/asia b/asia
index fbb9391..5eba52a 100644
--- a/asia
+++ b/asia
@@ -1760,7 +1760,7 @@ Rule	NBorneo	1935	1941	-	Sep	14	0:00	0:20	TS # one-Third Summer
 Rule	NBorneo	1935	1941	-	Dec	14	0:00	0	-
 #
 # peninsular Malaysia
-# The data here are taken from Mok Ly Yng (2003-10-30)
+# taken from Mok Ly Yng (2003-10-30)
 # http://www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/teaching/timezone.html
 # Zone	NAME		GMTOFF	RULES	FORMAT	[UNTIL]
 Zone Asia/Kuala_Lumpur	6:46:46 -	LMT	1901 Jan  1
@@ -1773,9 +1773,9 @@ Zone Asia/Kuala_Lumpur	6:46:46 -	LMT	1901 Jan  1
 			7:30	-	MALT	1982 Jan  1
 			8:00	-	MYT	# Malaysia Time
 # Sabah & Sarawak
-# From Paul Eggert (2006-03-22):
-# The data here are mostly from Shanks & Pottenger, but the 1942, 1945 and 1982
-# transition dates are from Mok Ly Yng.
+# From Paul Eggert (2014-08-12):
+# The data entries here are mostly from Shanks & Pottenger, but the 1942, 1945
+# and 1982 transition dates are from Mok Ly Yng.
 # Zone	NAME		GMTOFF	RULES	FORMAT	[UNTIL]
 Zone Asia/Kuching	7:21:20	-	LMT	1926 Mar
 			7:30	-	BORT	1933	# Borneo Time
@@ -2403,7 +2403,7 @@ Zone	Asia/Hebron	2:20:23	-	LMT	1900 Oct
 # be immediately followed by 1845-01-01; see R.H. van Gent's
 # History of the International Date Line
 # http://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~gent0113/idl/idl_philippines.htm
-# The rest of the data are from Shanks & Pottenger.
+# The rest of the data entries are from Shanks & Pottenger.
 
 # From Paul Eggert (2006-04-25):
 # Tomorrow's Manila Standard reports that the Philippines Department of
@@ -2465,7 +2465,7 @@ Zone	Asia/Riyadh	3:06:52 -	LMT	1947 Mar 14
 			3:00	-	AST
 
 # Singapore
-# The data here are taken from Mok Ly Yng (2003-10-30)
+# taken from Mok Ly Yng (2003-10-30)
 # http://www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/teaching/timezone.html
 # Zone	NAME		GMTOFF	RULES	FORMAT	[UNTIL]
 Zone	Asia/Singapore	6:55:25 -	LMT	1901 Jan  1
diff --git a/backzone b/backzone
index 8c5848f..156ffea 100644
--- a/backzone
+++ b/backzone
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
 # most of the era.  Because the zones are out of normal scope for the
 # database, less effort is put into maintaining this file.  Many of
 # the zones were formerly in other source files, but were removed or
-# replaced by links as their data were questionable and/or they
+# replaced by links as their data entries were questionable and/or they
 # differed from other zones only in pre-1970 time stamps.
 
 # Unless otherwise specified, the source for the data is the following,
@@ -121,8 +121,8 @@ Zone	Africa/Lome	0:04:52 -	LMT	1893
 #
 # Although Shanks says that Malabo switched from UTC to UTC+1 on 1963-12-15,
 # a Google Books search says that London Calling, Issues 432-465 (1948), p 19,
-# says that Spanish Guinea was at GMT+1 back then.  The Shanks data are most
-# likely wrong, but we have nothing better; use them here for now.
+# says that Spanish Guinea was at GMT+1 back then.  The Shanks data entries
+# are most likely wrong, but we have nothing better; use them here for now.
 #
 Zone	Africa/Malabo	0:35:08 -	LMT	1912
 			0:00	-	GMT	1963 Dec 15
diff --git a/europe b/europe
index 261b619..1d99b10 100644
--- a/europe
+++ b/europe
@@ -1809,7 +1809,7 @@ Zone	Europe/Monaco	0:29:32 -	LMT	1891 Mar 15
 # was not until 1866 when they were all required by law to observe
 # Amsterdam mean time.
 
-# The data before 1945 are taken from
+# The data entries before 1945 are taken from
 # http://www.phys.uu.nl/~vgent/wettijd/wettijd.htm
 
 # Rule	NAME	FROM	TO	TYPE	IN	ON	AT	SAVE	LETTER/S
diff --git a/newctime.3 b/newctime.3
index 5a3f65a..e9090d5 100644
--- a/newctime.3
+++ b/newctime.3
@@ -234,8 +234,8 @@ newtzset(3),
 time(2),
 tzfile(5)
 .SH NOTES
-The return values point to static data;
-the data are overwritten by each call.
+The return values point to static data
+overwritten by each call.
 The
 .B tm_zone
 field of a returned
diff --git a/northamerica b/northamerica
index 07cb33a..5116c47 100644
--- a/northamerica
+++ b/northamerica
@@ -1047,7 +1047,7 @@ Zone America/Menominee	-5:50:27 -	LMT	1885 Sep 18 12:00
 # From Paul Eggert (1994-11-22):
 # Alas, this sort of thing must be handled by localization software.
 
-# Unless otherwise specified, the data for Canada are all from Shanks
+# Unless otherwise specified, the data entries for Canada are all from Shanks
 # & Pottenger.
 
 # From Chris Walton (2006-04-01, 2006-04-25, 2006-06-26, 2007-01-31,
diff --git a/southamerica b/southamerica
index 0f0c233..a6cbdd5 100644
--- a/southamerica
+++ b/southamerica
@@ -335,9 +335,9 @@ Rule	Arg	2008	only	-	Oct	Sun>=15	0:00	1:00	S
 # back in 2004, when these provinces changed to UTC-4 for a few days, I
 # mailed them personally and never got an answer).
 
-# From Paul Eggert (2008-06-30):
-# Unless otherwise specified, data are from Shanks & Pottenger through 1992,
-# from the IATA otherwise.  As noted below, Shanks & Pottenger say that
+# From Paul Eggert (2014-08-12):
+# Unless otherwise specified, data entries are from Shanks & Pottenger through
+# 1992, from the IATA otherwise.  As noted below, Shanks & Pottenger say that
 # America/Cordoba split into 6 subregions during 1991/1992, one of which
 # was America/San_Luis, but we haven't verified this yet so for now we'll
 # keep America/Cordoba a single region rather than splitting it into the
@@ -1120,12 +1120,12 @@ Zone America/Rio_Branco	-4:31:12 -	LMT	1914
 # (they should have been 1990-09-15 and 1990-09-16 respectively), but
 # anyhow it clears up some doubts too.
 
-# From Paul Eggert (2006-12-27):
-# The following data for Chile and America/Santiago are from
+# From Paul Eggert (2014-08-12):
+# The following data entries for Chile and America/Santiago are from
 # <http://www.horaoficial.cl/horaof.htm> (2006-09-20), transcribed by
-# Jesper Nørgaard Welen.  The data for Pacific/Easter are from Shanks
+# Jesper Nørgaard Welen.  The data entries for Pacific/Easter are from Shanks
 # & Pottenger, except with DST transitions after 1932 cloned from
-# America/Santiago.  The pre-1980 Pacific/Easter data are dubious,
+# America/Santiago.  The pre-1980 Pacific/Easter data entries are dubious,
 # but we have no other source.
 
 # From Germán Poo-Caamaño (2008-03-03):
diff --git a/tz-link.htm b/tz-link.htm
index 5eeee6f..4a4b342 100644
--- a/tz-link.htm
+++ b/tz-link.htm
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ In the <code><abbr>tz</abbr></code> database's
 title="File Transfer Protocol">FTP</abbr> releases</a>
 the code is in the file <code>tzcode<var>C</var>.tar.gz</code>,
 where <code><var>C</var></code> is the code's version;
-similarly, the data are in <code>tzdata<var>D</var>.tar.gz</code>,
+similarly, the data entries are in <code>tzdata<var>D</var>.tar.gz</code>,
 where <code><var>D</var></code> is the data's version.
 Since 1996, each version has been a four-digit year followed by
 lower-case letter (<samp>a</samp> through <samp>z</samp>,
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ machine-readable binary files, one for each location. It also lets
 you read a <code><abbr>tz</abbr></code> binary file and interpret time stamps for that
 location.</p>
 <p>
-The data are by no means authoritative. If you find errors, please
+The files are by no means authoritative. If you find errors, please
 send changes to the <a href="mailto:tz at iana.org">time zone
 mailing list</a>. You can also <a
 href="http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.time.tz">browse recent
@@ -691,7 +691,7 @@ contains French translations for "Eastern European Summer Time",
 "<abbr title="Eastern European Summer Time">EEST</abbr>", and
 "Bucharest". Its
 <a href="http://unicode.org/cldr/charts/by_type/index.html">by-type
-charts</a> show these values for many locales. Data are available in
+charts</a> show these values for many locales. Data values are available in
 both <abbr title="Locale Data Markup Language">LDML</abbr>
 (an <abbr>XML</abbr> format) and <abbr>JSON</abbr>.
 <li>
diff --git a/tzfile.5 b/tzfile.5
index 1e67a64..54a67c6 100644
--- a/tzfile.5
+++ b/tzfile.5
@@ -25,14 +25,14 @@ The number of UT/local indicators stored in the file.
 The number of standard/wall indicators stored in the file.
 .TP
 .I tzh_leapcnt
-The number of leap seconds for which data are stored in the file.
+The number of leap seconds for which data entries are stored in the file.
 .TP
 .I tzh_timecnt
-The number of transition times for which data are stored
+The number of transition times for which data entries are stored
 in the file.
 .TP
 .I tzh_typecnt
-The number of local time types for which data are stored
+The number of local time types for which data entries are stored
 in the file (must not be zero).
 .TP
 .I tzh_charcnt
diff --git a/zone.tab b/zone.tab
index 4fe7527..084bb2f 100644
--- a/zone.tab
+++ b/zone.tab
@@ -17,8 +17,8 @@
 # that of zone1970.tab.
 #
 # This table is intended as an aid for users, to help them select time
-# zone data appropriate for their practical needs.  It is not intended
-# to take or endorse any position on legal or territorial claims.
+# zone data entries appropriate for their practical needs.  It is not
+# intended to take or endorse any position on legal or territorial claims.
 #
 #country-
 #code	coordinates	TZ			comments
diff --git a/zone1970.tab b/zone1970.tab
index 6188b61..03c50d8 100644
--- a/zone1970.tab
+++ b/zone1970.tab
@@ -28,8 +28,8 @@
 # most populous zones first, where that does not contradict (1).
 #
 # This table is intended as an aid for users, to help them select time
-# zone data appropriate for their practical needs.  It is not intended
-# to take or endorse any position on legal or territorial claims.
+# zone data entries appropriate for their practical needs.  It is not
+# intended to take or endorse any position on legal or territorial claims.
 #
 #country-
 #codes	coordinates	TZ	comments
-- 
1.9.1


More information about the tz mailing list