[tz] On ISO country for timezones (Re: Classifying IDs)

[dpatte]

I believe you are missing an important part of this discussion.There is a strong need for a repository of pre 1970 data, especially for historical research applications. As this is the only tz database, tz has also become the main database for this older data.For any populated place on earth researchers need such a repository. If I want to add the pre 1970 tz history for Ottawa Canada where should it be stored? Since it is called tz, and it also has other pre 1970 data, tz seems the appropriate place.But if no simple method of adding open-ended historical data is negotiated here, then the only other option is to fork tz and work on it as a separate project.Secondly, since the number of locations that could eventually be supported in a historical tz database is potentially very large, it cannot not be micromanaged, and this suggests that each historical zone should use an international standard for naming - iso - for simplicity and clarity.Canada/Ontario/OttawaAre we going to have two tz databases, or just one. That is the question here.Sent from my Galaxy
-------- Original message --------From: Steffen Nurpmeso via tz <tz at iana.org> Date: 2021-10-07  09:35  (GMT-05:00) To: Stephen Colebourne <scolebourne at joda.org> Cc: tz at iana.org Subject: Re: [tz] On ISO country for timezones (Re: Classifying IDs) Stephen Colebourne wrote in <CACzrW9Cau-q2e+yoBcg=7Rztu19zZN582Xca9ZMYbz=H_0iOpw at mail.gmail.com>: |On Thu, 7 Oct 2021 at 07:08, Watson Ladd via tz <tz at iana.org> wrote: ... |I agree with backwards compatibility. The primary concern here is |whether an ID is considered deprecated or not.IDs shall be stable and not change at all.  At maximum they shouldbe moved to backward, for example if a zone is renamed (which mayhappen for example for Ukraine in a not too distant future, ifthat is still necessary then, and it looks as if it would be).I would always have been all for making infinite stability of IDsa documented assertion.Even if not, your "six months" claim is nothing but an aggressivestatement.  I think this entire thread is shadowboxing and noisefor nothing.Looking at the interface of your JAVA framework i think getID()should simply return the correct ID, which may be a link if it isone, and just in case this is not what getID() already returns.In my opinion there are only two problems with IANA TZ and howPaul Eggert manages it as a maintainer.  That is the same PaulEggert who contributes to this software since 1995, an astonishing26 years.  Corroding the maintainership with a continuous streamof noise is disgusting.The first is combining of datasets to equal-post-1970 bundles,which is going on for many years.  But the data is there, it is inbackzone, and everybody can easily install a complete TZ DB onone's own request.  Yet noone did, even though many packagers areon this list.  This is schizophrenic.  But maybe it is onlybecause of black and yellow people do not matter as much as someblue-eyed white people from northern Europe, which does not trulycome as a surprise given the audience who possibly reads this now,and given the fact that colonianisation ended only about 55 yearsago, and de facto was only turned from armed political to armedmaterial oppression.The second is that documentation did not follow suit the codeimprovements, as has been recently shown for tzselect(8) and the-t option.  That tzselect(8) uses the administrative zone1970.taband not the end-user-preferrable zone.tab is a different thing.If you want to enforce upon the maintainer of the TZ database thatthe pre-1970 data is joined back into the normal data, or that"backzone" is splitted into "backzone" and "unreliable", and/orthat "backzone" is included by default, and/or that "ZFLAGS='-r at 0'" is made default, then create a thread and try to gain enoughhums, but please stop this subversion by spreading uncertainty andthat even upon topics which never were under discussion as far asi know, and i also read this list for a decade now.It must anyway be said it was nicer once i only had thedistribution and did not know about the list :)Ciao from Germany,--steffen||Der Kragenbaer,                The moon bear,|der holt sich munter           he cheerfully and one by one|einen nach dem anderen runter  wa.ks himself off|(By Robert Gernhardt)
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