[tz] Reason for removal of several TZ

Derick Rethans tz at derickrethans.nl
Tue Dec 5 14:14:09 UTC 2017


On Mon, 4 Dec 2017, Tom Lane wrote:

> Michael Douglass <mikeadouglass at gmail.com> writes:
> > I'd suggest a first step would be to provide a unique - reasonably short 
> > - opaque id for each definition. That allows us to build out a 
> > localization framework around it.
> 
> This strikes me as a remarkably bad idea.  Reality is that the 
> existing tzdb zone names are a de facto part of the universe now.  
> Whether you think that they ought to be used in UIs or not, *they are 
> so used*, and you aren't going to get anywhere by telling people not 
> to.
> 
> I can positively guarantee that if those names are replaced by 
> meaningless IDs, the very first thing that the Postgres project will 
> do is build a mapping table between those IDs and the old names, and 
> continue to expose the old names in our UI.  I confidently predict 
> that a majority of other consumers of the tz database will do 
> likewise.

Yes. I would instantly implement that for both PHP and MongoDB.

cheers,
Derick



More information about the tz mailing list