[tz] Dropping coordinates from zone1970.tab?

Aurelien Jarno aurelien at aurel32.net
Thu Sep 30 08:34:43 UTC 2021


On 2021-09-30 01:06, Paul Eggert wrote:
> On 9/30/21 12:51 AM, Aurelien Jarno via tz wrote:
> 
> > The point is not about choosing a timezone from a location, but rather
> > being able to show the cities linked to the timezones on a map so that
> > end users can pickup their timezone visually.
> 
> Sure, but that's straightforward to do visually regardless of timezone
> shape, even if the timezone is non-contiguous. A user points to a spot on
> the map, and the system picks the timezone containing that location (it can
> highlight the whole timezone region as the user points to a city, as visual
> feedback). A user who points to the South Pole should get Pacific/Auckland
> or equivalent even though Auckland is 6,000 km away. Again, this is not a
> new issue, as the South Pole has been merged with Pacific/Auckland for many
> years in tzdb.

Again the problem is not about automatically selecting the timezone when
clicking on a random location, but clicking on those cities. Among
others Antarctica/Syowa or America/Nassau can't be shown anymore on a
map. End users will have to select Ryhad and Toronto

> > Note that all the information for providing nice ways to select a
> > timezone for end-users is available in zone.tab
> 
> Not all info, surely. Timezone boundaries are not there. Nor is
> internationalization. A lot of stuff is missing.

Timezone boundaries are not needed. Internationalization can be done at
a different layer.

> > but that file is
> > currently deprecated in favor of zone1970.tab. I guess it will just get
> > removed when the process of merging timezone is finished.
> 
> That file has been deprecated for ages as its function is unclear, and it
> seems to be used differently by different downstream users. However, I was
> not planning to remove it even after merges are done, given that it's still
> being used.

It has been deprecated for a bit more than 2 years. And as you said it
is used by different downstream users. That said for me deprecated means
that it will get removed at some point and that those downstream users
have to find another database instead.

-- 
Aurelien Jarno                          GPG: 4096R/1DDD8C9B
aurelien at aurel32.net                 http://www.aurel32.net


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