[tz] [PATCH 00/10] Zone Table Comments

[J William Piggott]

On 03/06/2016 03:56 PM, Paul Eggert wrote:
>J William Piggott wrote:
>>> Please select one of the following time zone regions.
>>> >1) Newfoundland; Labrador (southeast)    15) Central - NU (Resolute)
>>> >2) Atlantic - NS (most areas); PE    16) Central - NU (central)
>>> >3) Atlantic - NS (Cape Breton)        17) CST - SK (most areas)
>>> >4) Atlantic - New Brunswick        18) CST - SK (midwest)
>>> >5) Atlantic - Labrador (most areas)    19) Mountain - AB; BC (E); SK (W)
>>> >6) AST - QC (Lower North Shore)    20) Mountain - NU (west)
>>> >7) Eastern - ON, QC (most areas)    21) Mountain - NT (central)
>>> >8) Eastern - ON, QC (no DST 1967-73)    22) Mountain - NT (west)
>>> >9) Eastern - ON (Thunder Bay)        23) MST - BC (Creston)
>>> >10) Eastern - NU (most east areas)    24) MST - BC (Dawson Cr, Ft St John)
>>> >11) Eastern - NU (Pangnirtung)        25) MST - BC (Ft Nelson)
>>> >12) EST - ON (Atikokan); NU (Coral H)    26) Pacific - BC (most areas)
>>> >13) Central - ON (west); Manitoba    27) Pacific - Yukon (south)
>>> >14) Central - ON (Rainy R, Ft Frances)    28) Pacific - Yukon (north)
>>> >#?
>> ...
>> Is DST information needed to choose a
>> zone file? In the example list above it doesn't seem to be.
>
>In the above list (whose formatting has been trashed by the various
>email software we're using) the name "Eastern" is short for Eastern time
>with daylight saving, whereas "EST" is short for Eastern Standard Time
>only, and similarly for other names. Presumably someone who knows or
>infers this can exploit their knowledge when selecting.

I wasn't denying the existence or legibility of the DST information. Nor
was I critiquing the changes you made. I was trying to express an
alternate concept that I thought had some merit for you as the
maintainer, myself and others as contributors, and end users:

Please select one of the following time zone regions.
 1) -0350 - NL; Labrador (southeast)   15) -06 - NU (Resolute)
 2) -04 - NS (most areas); PE          16) -06 - NU (central)
 3) -04 - NS (Cape Breton)             17) -06 - SK (most areas)
 4) -04 - New Brunswick                18) -06 - SK (midwest)
 5) -04 - Labrador (most areas)        19) -07 - AB; BC (E); SK (W)
 6) -04 - QC (Lower North Shore)       20) -07 - NU (west)
 7) -05 - ON, QC (most areas)          21) -07 - NT (central)
 8) -05 - ON, QC (no DST 1967-73)      22) -07 - NT (west)
 9) -05 - ON (Thunder Bay)             23) -07 - BC (Creston)
10) -05 - NU (most east areas)         24) -07 - BC (Dawson Cr, Ft St John)
11) -05 - NU (Pangnirtung)             25) -07 - BC (Ft Nelson)
12) -05 - ON (Atikokan); NU (Coral H)  26) -08 - BC (most areas)
13) -06 - ON (west); Manitoba          27) -08 - Yukon (south)
14) -06 - ON (Rainy R, Ft Frances)     28) -08 - Yukon (north)

Then simply sorting the local region menus would yield geographic order
and save you the effort of keeping the zone table files ordered.

Perhaps slightly improved when sorted, as second levels are also
grouped and alphabetical:

 1) -0350 - NL; Labrador (southeast)   15) -06 - ON (Rainy R, Ft Frances)
 2) -04 - Labrador (most areas)        16) -06 - ON (west); Manitoba
 3) -04 - NS (Cape Breton)             17) -06 - SK (midwest)
 4) -04 - NS (most areas); PE          18) -06 - SK (most areas)
 5) -04 - New Brunswick                19) -07 - AB; BC (E); SK (W)
 6) -04 - QC (Lower North Shore)       20) -07 - BC (Creston)
 7) -05 - NU (Pangnirtung)             21) -07 - BC (Dawson Cr, Ft St John)
 8) -05 - NU (most east areas)         22) -07 - BC (Ft Nelson)
 9) -05 - ON (Atikokan); NU (Coral H)  23) -07 - NT (central)
10) -05 - ON (Thunder Bay)             24) -07 - NT (west)
11) -05 - ON, QC (most areas)          25) -07 - NU (west)
12) -05 - ON, QC (no DST 1967-73)      26) -08 - BC (most areas)
13) -06 - NU (Resolute)                27) -08 - Yukon (north)
14) -06 - NU (central)                 28) -08 - Yukon (south)