You may also want to look into the CLDR project, which is an open project to provide common localization data, including translations for the names of time zones.<br><br><a href="http://cldr.unicode.org/">http://cldr.unicode.org/</a><br>
<br>-Scott<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 9:12 PM, Naoko McCracken <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:info@nao-net.com">info@nao-net.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Scott,<br>
<br>
Thank you for your in-depth explanation of why the names are set up this way.<br>
It sounds like a lot more complicated set of information than I realized before.<br>
I have much appreciation for you all to be keeping the database available for<br>
other projects.<br>
<br>
Now that I understand the reasons, it makes sense.<br>
<br>
This new type of timezone system was introduced in the current version of the<br>
program. It used to have a simple timezone selection with +- GMT; summer<br>
time was set manually.<br>
<br>
I'm not a programmer but more of a translator, so I'll work with others to<br>
figure out what we can do.<br>
Thank you so much for your help.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
Naoko McCracken<br>
</font><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 2:47 PM, Scott Atwood<<a href="mailto:scott.roy.atwood@gmail.com">scott.roy.atwood@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> Naoko,<br>
><br>
> The timezone identifiers used by the Olson timezone database aren't<br>
> necessarily intended for direct use by end users. Many of the issues you<br>
> report are due to the rules and conventions used for selecting timezone<br>
> identifier names.<br>
><br>
> The basic structure of the timezone identifiers is usually in two parts.<br>
> The first part identifies the continent or ocean in which the timezone is<br>
> located. The second part is the name of the largest or most important city<br>
> within the timezone. North America and South America are collapsed into a<br>
> single top level identifier of America. This structure was chosen because<br>
> continents and cities tend to be relatively stable entities, but country<br>
> names and their borders can vary wildly over time.<br>
><br>
> Indiana, Kentucky, and Argentina have particularly interesting time zone<br>
> histories, which means they contain relatively many timezones identified by<br>
> relatively nondescript cities. So in order to avoid ambiguity and/or<br>
> conflict in timezone identifiers, an additional level in the timezone<br>
> hierarchy was introduced for these regions.<br>
><br>
> Most of the issues you identify are related to backwards compatibility<br>
> links. Once a timezone identifier has been created, it should remain stable<br>
> so that software that relies on an existing timezone identifier won't break<br>
> when the timezone package is updated. So if a timezone identifier needs to<br>
> change, the old timezone identifier is kept as an alias for the new name.<br>
><br>
> Most of the duplicates you note are due to changes in the preferred English<br>
> transliteration of foreign city names. The abbreviations of Australian<br>
> timezones and the cardinal direction Australian timezones are deprecated<br>
> timezone identifiers that are backwards compatibility links to timezones in<br>
> the current Continent/City format. When a city name changes, the old name<br>
> is kept as an alias for the new name. ComodRivadavia is also a backwards<br>
> compatibility link.<br>
><br>
> Unless these backwards compatibility links are causing serious issues with<br>
> your application, I urge you to leave them be, since they be required by<br>
> some clients who already rely on them. However, it may not be unreasonable<br>
> to not display the backwards compatibility links in a UI that end users use<br>
> to select a new time zone.<br>
><br>
> The timezone identifiers can only contain upper and lower case ASCII<br>
> letters, and underscores. Spaces, apostrophes, and accented letters are not<br>
> allowed. Hence Dumont d'Urville becomes DumontDUrville.<br>
><br>
> And for what it's worth, there is a Central Western time zone in Australia,<br>
> but it is unofficial, and though it covers a large area, it encompasses only<br>
> a very small population.<br>
><br>
> I hope this answers your concerns. Please let me know if you have any<br>
> further questions.<br>
><br>
> -Scott<br>
><br>
> On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 6:16 AM, Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E]<br>
> <<a href="mailto:olsona@dc37a.nci.nih.gov">olsona@dc37a.nci.nih.gov</a>> wrote:<br>
>><br>
>> I'm forwarding this message from Naoko McCracken, who is not on the time<br>
>> zone mailing list. Those of you who are on the list, please direct<br>
>> replies appropriately.<br>
>><br>
>> --ado<br>
>><br>
>> -----Original Message-----<br>
>> From: Naoko McCracken [mailto:<a href="mailto:info@nao-net.com">info@nao-net.com</a>]<br>
>> Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2009 2:01<br>
>> To: <a href="mailto:tz@lecserver.nci.nih.gov">tz@lecserver.nci.nih.gov</a><br>
>> Subject: Typos, duplicates, old/new names<br>
>><br>
>> Hi,<br>
>><br>
>> I was directed to your project when I reported issues with WordPress<br>
>> language file.<br>
>> They use your timezone database via the php function<br>
>> timezone_identifiers_list() to fetch country names for:<br>
>> <a href="http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress-i18n/pot/trunk/wordpress-continents-" target="_blank">http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress-i18n/pot/trunk/wordpress-continents-</a><br>
>> cities.pot<br>
>><br>
>> My post:<br>
>> <a href="http://comox.textdrive.com/pipermail/wp-polyglots/2009-May/003435.html" target="_blank">http://comox.textdrive.com/pipermail/wp-polyglots/2009-May/003435.html</a><br>
>> Reply:<br>
>> <a href="http://comox.textdrive.com/pipermail/wp-polyglots/2009-May/003439.html" target="_blank">http://comox.textdrive.com/pipermail/wp-polyglots/2009-May/003439.html</a><br>
>><br>
>> There are a couple more things reported by another language file<br>
>> maintainer:<br>
>> <a href="http://comox.textdrive.com/pipermail/wp-polyglots/2009-May/003443.html" target="_blank">http://comox.textdrive.com/pipermail/wp-polyglots/2009-May/003443.html</a><br>
>><br>
>> I'm totally new here and not sure if I'm sending this to the right<br>
>> place.<br>
>> I'd appreciate it if someone can help me through to get these issues<br>
>> straightened.<br>
>><br>
>> Thank you,<br>
>><br>
>> ---<br>
>> Naoko McCracken<br>
>> <a href="http://ja.wordpress.org/" target="_blank">http://ja.wordpress.org/</a><br>
>><br>
>><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> --<br>
> Scott Atwood<br>
><br>
> Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia. ~H.G. Wells<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Scott Atwood<br><br>Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia. ~H.G. Wells<br><br><br>