proposed updates for Kiribati and Israel

Paul Eggert eggert at twinsun.com
Mon Jan 22 21:28:55 UTC 1996


Time zones made front-page news in today's _Wall Street Journal_,
which reports that various countries in the Pacific are jockeying to
be the first to welcome the 21st century, since this is rumored to be
good for the tourist trade.  So far, Kiribati has been the only one to
officially change its clocks (see below) but we might see other
changes in the future.  The most extreme case is a threat by Cuba to
move its clocks ahead 24 hours!

Also, the stated rule for picking locations:

#	Use the most populous among locations in a country's time zone,
#		e.g. prefer `Shanghai' to `Beijing'.  Among locations with
#		similar populations, pick the best-known location,
#		e.g. prefer `Rome' to `Milan'.

suggests that Asia/Jerusalem is a better name choice than Asia/Tel_Aviv.
Which location has the higher population depends on how you're
counting (city limits? or metropolitan area?) and in the case of
similar populations, Jerusalem should be chosen since it's better-known.
Asia/Tel_Aviv should be retained for backward compatibility, of course.

Here is a proposed patch.

===================================================================
RCS file: RCS/australasia,v
retrieving revision 1995.13
retrieving revision 1995.13.1.1
diff -c -r1995.13 -r1995.13.1.1
*** australasia	1995/12/21 17:18:27	1995.13
--- australasia	1996/01/22 21:06:45	1995.13.1.1
***************
*** 208,222 ****
  # uninhabited
  
  # Kiribati
  # Zone	NAME		GMTOFF	RULES	FORMAT	[UNTIL]
  Zone Pacific/Tarawa	 11:32:04 -	LMT	1901		# Bairiki
  			 12:00	-	NZST
  Zone Pacific/Enderbury	-11:24:20 -	LMT	1901
  			-12:00	-	KJT	1979 Oct
! 			-11:00	-	SST
  Zone Pacific/Kiritimati	-10:29:20 -	LMT	1901
  			-10:40	-	LIT	1979 Oct	# Line Is Time
! 			-10:00	-	THT
  
  # N Mariana Is
  # Zone	NAME		GMTOFF	RULES	FORMAT	[UNTIL]
--- 208,228 ----
  # uninhabited
  
  # Kiribati
+ # From Paul Eggert (1996-01-22):
+ # Today's _Wall Street Journal_ (page 1) reports that Kiribati
+ # ``declared it the same day throught the country as of Jan. 1, 1995''
+ # as part of the competition to be first into the 21st century.
  # Zone	NAME		GMTOFF	RULES	FORMAT	[UNTIL]
  Zone Pacific/Tarawa	 11:32:04 -	LMT	1901		# Bairiki
  			 12:00	-	NZST
  Zone Pacific/Enderbury	-11:24:20 -	LMT	1901
  			-12:00	-	KJT	1979 Oct
! 			-11:00	-	SST	1995
! 			 13:00	-	TGT
  Zone Pacific/Kiritimati	-10:29:20 -	LMT	1901
  			-10:40	-	LIT	1979 Oct	# Line Is Time
! 			-10:00	-	THT	1995
! 			 14:00	-	KRT
  
  # N Mariana Is
  # Zone	NAME		GMTOFF	RULES	FORMAT	[UNTIL]
***************
*** 362,367 ****
--- 368,377 ----
  			-10:00	-	THT
  
  # Tonga
+ # From Paul Eggert (1996-01-22):
+ # Today's _Wall Street Journal_ (page 1) reports that ``Tonga has been plotting
+ # to sneak ahead of [New Zealanders] by introducing daylight-saving time.''
+ # But since Kiribati has moved the Date Line it's not clear what Tonga will do.
  # Zone	NAME		GMTOFF	RULES	FORMAT	[UNTIL]
  Zone Pacific/Tongatapu	12:19:20 -	LMT	1901
  			12:20	-	TMT	1968 Oct
***************
*** 403,409 ****
  # go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to
  # tz at elsie.nci.nih.gov for general use in the future).
  
! # From Paul Eggert <eggert at twinsun.com> (August 18, 1994):
  # A good source for time zone historical data outside the U.S. is
  # Thomas G. Shanks, The International Atlas (3rd edition),
  # San Diego: ACS Publications, Inc. (1991).
--- 413,419 ----
  # go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to
  # tz at elsie.nci.nih.gov for general use in the future).
  
! # From Paul Eggert <eggert at twinsun.com> (1996-01-22);
  # A good source for time zone historical data outside the U.S. is
  # Thomas G. Shanks, The International Atlas (3rd edition),
  # San Diego: ACS Publications, Inc. (1991).
***************
*** 436,441 ****
--- 446,452 ----
  #	 12:00	NZST NZDT New Zealand
  #	 12:45	CHST CHDT Chatham*
  #	 13:00	TGT	Tongatapu*
+ #	 14:00	KRT	Kiritimati*
  #	-12:00	KJT	Kwajalein (no longer used)*
  #	-11:00	SST	Samoa
  #	-10:40	LIT	Line Is (no longer used)*
===================================================================
RCS file: RCS/asia,v
retrieving revision 1996.1
retrieving revision 1996.1.1.1
diff -c -r1996.1 -r1996.1.1.1
*** asia	1996/01/06 14:08:15	1996.1
--- asia	1996/01/22 21:06:45	1996.1.1.1
***************
*** 499,505 ****
  Rule	Zion	1997	1998	-	Oct	Sun>=14	0:00	0:00	S
  
  # Zone	NAME		GMTOFF	RULES	FORMAT	[UNTIL]
! Zone	Asia/Tel_Aviv	2:19:04 -	LMT	1880
  			2:21	-	JMT	1918
  			2:00	Zion	I%sT
  
--- 499,505 ----
  Rule	Zion	1997	1998	-	Oct	Sun>=14	0:00	0:00	S
  
  # Zone	NAME		GMTOFF	RULES	FORMAT	[UNTIL]
! Zone	Asia/Jerusalem	2:20:56 -	LMT	1880
  			2:21	-	JMT	1918
  			2:00	Zion	I%sT
  
===================================================================
RCS file: RCS/backward,v
retrieving revision 1995.13
retrieving revision 1995.13.1.1
diff -c -r1995.13 -r1995.13.1.1
*** backward	1995/12/21 17:18:38	1995.13
--- backward	1996/01/22 21:06:45	1995.13.1.1
***************
*** 7,12 ****
--- 7,13 ----
  Link	America/Indianapolis	America/Fort_Wayne
  Link	America/Indiana/Knox	America/Knox_IN
  Link	America/St_Thomas	America/Virgin
+ Link	Asia/Jerusalem		Asia/Tel_Aviv
  Link	Australia/Sydney	Australia/ACT
  Link	Australia/Sydney	Australia/Canberra
  Link	Australia/Lord_Howe	Australia/LHI
***************
*** 45,51 ****
  Link	Asia/Hong_Kong		Hongkong
  Link	Atlantic/Reykjavik	Iceland
  Link	Asia/Tehran		Iran
! Link	Asia/Tel_Aviv		Israel
  Link	America/Jamaica		Jamaica
  Link	Asia/Tokyo		Japan
  Link	Pacific/Kwajalein	Kwajalein
--- 46,52 ----
  Link	Asia/Hong_Kong		Hongkong
  Link	Atlantic/Reykjavik	Iceland
  Link	Asia/Tehran		Iran
! Link	Asia/Jerusalem		Israel
  Link	America/Jamaica		Jamaica
  Link	Asia/Tokyo		Japan
  Link	Pacific/Kwajalein	Kwajalein



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