[tz] Fwd: [apps-discuss] Proposed working group: Timezone Data Distribution Service (tzdist)

[Guy Harris]

On Jul 2, 2014, at 8:58 PM, Mike Douglass <mikeadouglass at gmail.com> wrote:

> It seems odd that tz data is treated like code to be updated as system patches when it changes.

If you mean "like code to be updated as system patches when it changes, rather than like a database to be accessed over the Intertubes", bear in mind that, back in 1987, when the tz database and sample code was originally created, Internet access was a lot less common than it is today.  (I seem to remember the point at which Sun, where I was working at the time, got access to the ARPANET.)

If the tz database were to have been designed in the late 1990's or early 2000's, a number of things might have been done differently - but it *wasn't* designed then.  Perhaps it should be rethought at this point (in a fashion that don't involve changing every program that uses localtime() or mktime(), of course; requiring a change doesn't help).

(And, frankly, it's arguably a bit scary that some embedded systems *are* connected to the Intertubes, but I digress....)