[tz] Belarus is listed in MSK timezone

John Haxby john.haxby at oracle.com
Thu Apr 2 13:13:36 UTC 2015


On 02/04/15 13:17, Dzmitry Kazimirchyk wrote:
> 
>>
>> MSK*IS*  simply a rule set - Europe/Minsk is the time zone identifier
>> which provides the link to the set of rules bing used.
> 
> I understand, but it is there and is used to display time zone in
> software far more often than "Europe/Minsk".

As I understand it, the tz database merely documents common practice.
So, for example, there was a longstanding debate about whether
Australian timezones would be things like AEST or EST.   The timezone
identifiers resolutely stuck with EST instead of AEST until it was
established that common (Australian) practise was to add the "A" at the
beginning.  (This was a very long saga, I hope I've got the gist of the
story about right.)

In the case of Minsk, do people in that locale most often say and write
"MSK" in the way that the Australians write "AEST" and the British
"GMT"?   What documentary evidence is there for both MSK and an alternative?

This is completely apolitical, it's purely geographical.  It's what
people who regard their timezone as Europe/Minsk habitually use for the
timezone identifier.

Does that make sense?

jch


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