<div dir="auto"><div>If we really don't wamt to deal with localization issue then we should use the original spelling instead of English/Latin Character transliteration<div dir="auto">Your comment on English translation name being stable is rather inaccurate, Alma-Ata have become Almaty, Bombay have become Mumbai, Leningrad have become Saint Petersburg.</div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">在 2020年11月29日週日 05:08，Brian Inglis <<a href="mailto:Brian.Inglis@systematicsw.ab.ca">Brian.Inglis@systematicsw.ab.ca</a>> 寫道：<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Folks,<br>
<br>
If we are regarding these as English identifiers, we should be ignoring all <br>
these political arguments, and *STOP* adding alternate spellings, exccept for <br>
technical reasons when time zones split or combine.<br>
<br>
Alternate spellings and scripts are localization issues that should be dealt <br>
with by the likes of CLDR and ICU libraries. If the characters to be used were <br>
not in the POSIX base character set, we would have no hesitation just saying <br>
*NO*; we should have no hesitation just saying *NO* to political arguments! <br>
Whether there are more occurrences on more sites should have no relevance once <br>
the identifier has been assigned, just as other location selection criteria such <br>
as population are considered irrelevant once an identifier has been assigned.<br>
<br>
We have dropped posixrules and eliminated many other legacy rules and zones, we <br>
should in the course of time, eliminate all the alternate spellings, keeping <br>
only the base zone identifiers.<br>
<br>
Otherwise we appear to have given up any basis for resisting these political <br>
complaints and we should just add a link anytime anyone has any political <br>
objection to how we identify it.<br>
If this change is made, I would promptly expect growing demands for more <br>
political changes, as we have been shown to waver in the face of political <br>
demands unrelated to technical issues.<br>
There will be more demands to change or add official or remove unofficial zone <br>
identifiers on political bases.<br>
<br>
And for most English speakers the locations under discussion will for decades <br>
continue to be referred to as Ukraine, Crimea, Sebastopol, Kiev, etc. regardless <br>
of what the locals want to call it or have others call it.<br>
Few English speakers will recognize or assign any meaning to new names, unless <br>
both appear together regularly with explanations on common social and tabloid <br>
media web sites, which is unlikely as it not click bait.<br>
Those sites will continue to use the old spellings, as their primary focus is <br>
getting their readers attention, with words they recognize and could use.<br>
<br>
-- <br>
Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis, Calgary, Alberta, Canada<br>
<br>
<br>
On 2020-11-28 11:38, Paul Eggert wrote:<br>
> On 11/27/20 9:54 AM, Matt Johnson-Pint wrote:<br>
> <br>
>> how hard is it to add a link? ... We wouldn't even have to make the Kyiv <br>
>> spelling primary.<br>
> <br>
> This sounds like a good suggestion. We could add a link line as in the patch <br>
> below. This would be a test of the new feature of *forward* compatibility, not <br>
> *backward* compatibility, but it's pretty much the same thing as far as the <br>
> implementation goes so I'm not sure it's worth the hassle of creating a new <br>
> 'forward' file. Now that FreeBSD uses 'backward' along with everybody else, <br>
> putting this line in 'backward' means it should be supported by everybody who <br>
> cares about alternate names.<br>
> <br>
> I had already been meaning to move some other links to 'backward' for similar <br>
> reasons, but I figure we might as well do the tougher case first.<br>
> <br>
> I have not committed this patch, as the area is controversial.<br>
> <br>
> diff --git a/backward b/backward<br>
> index e13ae52..3327e58 100644<br>
> --- a/backward<br>
> +++ b/backward<br>
> @@ -1,9 +1,9 @@<br>
> -# tzdb links for backward compatibility<br>
> +# tzdb links for backward and forward compatibility<br>
> <br>
> <br>
> # This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of<br>
> # 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson.<br>
> <br>
> <br>
> -# This file provides links between current names for timezones<br>
> +# This section provides links between current names for timezones<br>
> # and their old names. Many names changed in late 1993.<br>
> <br>
> <br>
> # Link TARGET LINK-NAME<br>
> @@ -130,3 +130,9 @@ Link Etc/UTC UTC<br>
> Link Etc/UTC Universal<br>
> Link Europe/Moscow W-SU<br>
> Link Etc/UTC Zulu<br>
> +<br>
> +<br>
> +# This section is for forward compatibility, where the primary name is<br>
> +# likely to change if current trends in common English usage continue.<br>
> +<br>
> +Link Europe/Kiev Europe/Kyiv<br>
</blockquote></div></div></div>