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<p><font face="monospace">I think everybody could be satisfied by a
small semantic redefinition of the meaning of Link records.</font></p>
<p><font face="monospace">The current practice seems to be:</font></p>
<p><font face="monospace">1. Link records in the main files indicate
that a given zone's data are also used for an area in another
country.<br>
Example in file europe</font></p>
<p><font face="monospace">Link Europe/Belgrade Europe/Ljubljana #
Slovenia<br>
Link Europe/Belgrade Europe/Podgorica # Montenegro<br>
Link Europe/Belgrade Europe/Sarajevo # Bosnia and Herzegovina<br>
Link Europe/Belgrade Europe/Skopje # North Macedonia<br>
Link Europe/Belgrade Europe/Zagreb # Croatia<br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="monospace">Example in file Africa<br>
Link Africa/Abidjan Africa/Bamako # Mali<br>
Link Africa/Abidjan Africa/Banjul # Gambia<br>
Link Africa/Abidjan Africa/Conakry # Guinea<br>
Link Africa/Abidjan Africa/Dakar # Senegal<br>
Link Africa/Abidjan Africa/Freetown # Sierra Leone<br>
Link Africa/Abidjan Africa/Lome # Togo<br>
Link Africa/Abidjan Africa/Nouakchott # Mauritania<br>
Link Africa/Abidjan Africa/Ouagadougou # Burkina Faso<br>
Link Africa/Abidjan Atlantic/St_Helena # St Helena</font></p>
<p><font face="monospace">2. Link records in file backward<br>
# This file provides links between current names for timezones<br>
# and their old names. Many names changed in late 1993.<br>
...<br>
Link Asia/Kolkata Asia/Calcutta<br>
...</font></p>
<p><font face="monospace">If the meaning of Link records in the main
files were expanded to also indicate<br>
alternative zone names, then an entry in file europe<br>
<br>
# alternative zone name </font><font face="monospace"><font
face="monospace">Europe/Kyiv<br>
</font>Link Europe/Kiev Europe/Kyiv<br>
would satisfy the Ukrainian requests.</font></p>
<p><font face="monospace">Such a link results automatically in the
creation of a zoneinfo file<br>
Europe/Kyiv which is identical to </font><font face="monospace"><font
face="monospace">Europe/Kiev <br>
</font></font></p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 12.02.21 11:14, Paul Eggert wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:6c8ad246-4b72-8c9b-8f99-5ef8501da6ab@cs.ucla.edu">On
2/11/21 4:20 PM, Brian Park wrote: <br>
<blockquote type="cite">I don't still don't understand why there
is reluctance to add <br>
LINK entries. Wouldn't that resolve most of these requests? <br>
</blockquote>
<br>
We'd keep getting requests, though, if word got out that one could
plant political flags into tzdb simply by asking. Suppose North
Korea started calling Seoul "Kim Il-sung City" on the grounds that
it's their city and they can call it what they want? And that is
not a fanciful supposition: North Koreans seriously suggested
doing exactly that in the 1990s after Kim Il-sung died. <br>
<br>
At some point we need to say that tzdb is about civil time, not
about settling or documenting other political disputes. We might
as well say it now rather than later. <br>
</blockquote>
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