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<p>Dear all,</p>
<p>as a follow-up to the "Hanoi" thread, I've some questions
regarding tzdb policies. As it is a slightly separate / more
general point, I'll single that thread out from the initial
"Hanoi" discussion.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>In particular, I'd like to understand the background of the
following item (taken from
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://data.iana.org/time-zones/theory.html#naming">https://data.iana.org/time-zones/theory.html#naming</a>):<br>
</p>
<p>>There should typically be at least one name for each <a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1"><abbr
title="International Organization for Standardization">ISO</abbr>
3166-1</a> officially <br>
>assigned two-letter code for an inhabited country or
territory. </p>
<p>I initially thought this would be the reason for the "Links" of
"Asia/Phnom_Penh" and "Asia/Vientiane" to "Asia/Bangkok".</p>
<p>However, latest discussion in the "Hanoi" thread rather
attributed these two aliases to backwards compatibility after
prior data was moved to the backzone file.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>I'd assume the quoted "ISO 3166-1"-based policy could make sense
for two reasons:</p>
<p>a) Congruence of ids and decision-making bodies (i.e.,
countries/governments): <br>
</p>
<p>In contrast to data stored using "Asia/Bangkok", systems/data
using the "Asia/Phnom_Penh" name/link/alias/id would not need to
change/re-configure in case the government of Cambodia decides to
deviate from "Asia/Bangkok" at some time</p>
<p>b) Politically:</p>
<p>Even if tzdb names might not be intended as "names", they do
surface from time to time, as with configuring time zones on a
machine [1], or by applications just passing through tzdb names. I
can somehow understand that this is not fully satisfactory in the
Vietnam/Hanoi case right now (see below). While it is neither the
intention nor the concern of tzdb to deal with this, one can argue
that in practice, there is still clearly a practical impact of
tzdb names/ids.<br>
</p>
<p>So any information on the rationale for the above-quoted rule is
appreciated.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>Also, I see there are recommendations for implementers regarding
localization (e.g., reference to Unicode CLDR), but I could not
find recommendations concerning the usage of tzdb
names/ids/links/aliases - which, in my understanding, will be the
String persisted by most applications in the end?</p>
<p>If so, setting "Vietnamese" data or systems to an "Asia/Bangkok"
tzdb identifier would, to some degree, effectively tie that data
to Thai legislation. In case Vietnam would deviate from
"Asia/Bangkok" in the future (by either Thai or Vietnamese
decision), legacy data might need to be change to an "Asia/Hanoi"
identifier. I'd be interested in pointers if this aspect was ever
discussed here or is considered relevant at all.<br>
</p>
<p>Thanks and best,<br>
Hans-Joerg</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>ps.: as for the Vietnam case, note that the "displayName()"
property in Java shows "Indochina" for most zones under discussion
[2]</p>
<p>Also Unicode CLDR translations look tricky in this case
(<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://st.unicode.org/cldr-apps/survey?_=en&x=r_zones">http://st.unicode.org/cldr-apps/survey?_=en&x=r_zones</a>)<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>[1] E.g.
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://askubuntu.com/questions/323131/setting-timezone-from-terminal/323163">https://askubuntu.com/questions/323131/setting-timezone-from-terminal/323163</a>
points out the two options of<br>
</p>
<pre><code>sudo cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Bangkok /etc/localtime</code></pre>
<p>(explicit!)</p>
<p>or <br>
</p>
<pre><code>tzselect
</code></pre>
<p>..yielding the following dialogue:<br>
</p>
<p>Please select a country whose clocks agree with yours.<br>
1) Afghanistan 18) Israel 35) Palestine<br>
.........<br>
15) Indonesia 32) Nepal 49) Vietnam<br>
16) Iran 33) Oman 50) Yemen<br>
17) Iraq 34) Pakistan<br>
#? 49</p>
<p>Please select one of the following time zone regions.<br>
1) Indochina (most areas)<br>
2) Vietnam (south)<br>
</p>
<p>...which looks better, but is also not ideal from a user
point-of-view...<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>[2] Java TimeZone.getDisplayName() output for EN/DE/FR locale
(Oracle JDK 1.8.0_191):<br>
</p>
<p>Asia/Bangkok / Indochina Time<br>
Asia/Bangkok / Indochina Zeit<br>
Asia/Bangkok / Heure d'Indochine<br>
Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh / Indochina Time<br>
Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh / Indochina Zeit<br>
Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh / Heure d'Indochine<br>
Asia/Phnom_Penh / Indochina Time<br>
Asia/Phnom_Penh / Indochina Zeit<br>
Asia/Phnom_Penh / Heure d'Indochine<br>
Asia/Saigon / Indochina Time<br>
Asia/Saigon / Indochina Zeit<br>
Asia/Saigon / Heure d'Indochine<br>
Asia/Vientiane / Indochina Time<br>
Asia/Vientiane / Indochina Zeit<br>
Asia/Vientiane / Heure d'Indochine<br>
VST / Indochina Time<br>
VST / Indochina Zeit<br>
VST / Heure d'Indochine<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
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