[tz] [PROPOSED] Merge timezones that are alike since 1970
Paul Eggert
eggert at cs.ucla.edu
Sun May 30 00:40:23 UTC 2021
On 5/29/21 3:14 PM, Brian Inglis via tz wrote:
> Some(/many?/most?) downstreams maintain their own copies of older code
> and data and cherry pick updates to maintain maximal backward
> compatibility to avoid breaking their customers production systems,
> generating bug reports, that costs them effort, time, and money to deal
> with.
Yes, when we removed the SystemV/* names a couple of decades ago, some
suppliers kept them around for awhile for compatibility reasons. I doubt
whether that'd be useful for the current change, though, as it's a
smaller change from the user viewpoint.
> If we keep the rules for regions common, but have similar zones for
> different political entities at similar longitudes, we can maintain a
> balance, and still reduce effort.
I'm not so much worried by the technical effort of maintaining Sweden
data separately now, as by the political effort of justifying why we
treat Sweden differently from Kosovo or any number of similar candidates
in the future. Saying "we've always done it that way" is not sufficient
justification for a political decision.
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