[tz] tzdb timezone names/identifiers and links

[Martin Burnicki]

Guy Harris wrote:
> On Mar 1, 2019, at 1:07 AM, Martin Burnicki <martin.burnicki at meinberg.de> wrote:
> 
>> A map is fine as long as you see one. ;-)
>>
>> If there is no map then a plausible location name would be good.
> 
> As I said:
> 
> 	...and giving the name of your current time (e.g., Pacific Standard Time, as we're not on summer time) and of the closest city.
> 
>> For example, I'm in Germany and usually the displayed location name is
>> Europe/Berlin,
> 
> Even if you're in Düsseldorf or Hamburg or Munich or...?  If so, why?  (You said "location name", not "tzdb ID", so "because that's the tzdb ID for my location" isn't a valid answer.)

With "location name" I just meant mean what is displayed to the ordinary
user, which eventually is even localized.

For users in Germany Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Munich or Berlin is fine, but
Stockholm probably not since users are not sure if Stockholm has the
same TZ rules as Germany.

>> and (at least for current zone rules) it wouldn't make
>> much difference when I selected Europe/{Stockholm|Oslo|Amsterdam|Paris}.
>> However, folks who are not so familiar with this kind of stuff would
>> probably be confused if they see Stockholm instead of Berlin for their
>> time zone.
> 
> Somebody in Sweden who's not so familiar with this kind of stuff would probably be confused if they see Stockholm?  And they wouldn't be confused if they saw Berlin?
> 
> If so, why?
> 
> Or do you mean somebody in *Germany* who's not so familiar with this kind of stuff would probably be confused if they see Stockholm, in which case the next question is "so why would you show Stockholm to somebody in Germany?" - just as "so why would you show Berlin to somebody in Sweden?" is also a good question.

Yes, I meant somebody in Germany. Of course for users in Sweden this
would be fine, but Berlin would be confusing.

> For that matter, given that I'm several hundred km away from Los Angeles, why should I be shown Los Angeles?  Hint: "because that's what the Theory file says" isn't a reasonable answer for a program intended for general users rather than tzdb nerds.

I don't think the distance matters much. For folks in a different state
in the USA than actually shown in their settings this might be confusing
as well, if they are not sure if both states have the same TZ rules.

Martin
-- 
Martin Burnicki

Senior Software Engineer

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