<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">On Feb 12, 2021, at 05:14, Paul Eggert <<a href="mailto:eggert@cs.ucla.edu" class="">eggert@cs.ucla.edu</a>> wrote:<div class=""><br class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">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.</span></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></div><div class="">If this is the policy (and I think it is the correct one), then we need to become utterly consistent about its implementation. There are really only two consistent possibilities:</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">TZ identifiers are arbitrary and immutable. Or they’re not. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">If the first is true, then they should *never* change. Ever. For any reason. (*Additional* ids can of course be introduced, but that’s a different situation, already well covered in the theory document). Of course, this means that the ostensible “meaning” of the various IDs will slowly drift away from correspondence with political realities over time. Oh well. They’re arbitrary. Deal with it.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">To say that ‘TZ identifiers are arbitrary tags’, but then go ahead and change *some* of them in response to various forms of special pleading does nothing but open the project up to charges of being arbitrary and capricious. No wonder the politicians are confused about the process. It’s a confusion that we ourselves have fostered. Until and unless we consistently apply this policy, these arguments about names are going to be endless.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">TZ identifiers are arbitrary and immutable. Or they’re not. Which is it going to be?</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Cheers!</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">|---------------------------------------------------------------------|</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">| Frederick F. Gleason, Jr. | Chief Developer |</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">| | Paravel Systems |</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">|---------------------------------------------------------------------|</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">| "On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament], |</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">| `Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will |</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">| the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the |</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">| kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." |</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">| |</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">| -- Charles Babbage |</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">|---------------------------------------------------------------------|</span></div></div></body></html>