Java zoneinfo reader

[Paul Eggert]

   Date: Wed, 07 Jun 2000 12:56:30 -0400
   From: "Stuart D. Gathman" <stuart at bmsi.com>

   I had an elegant idea which is unfortunately incompatible with current tz
   format.  Instead of transition times for *offsets*, the history should
   store transition times for *algorithms*.

Yes, that's a more obvious idea, and it's probably a better one as
it'll be easier to explain.  (Might as well switch to XML while we're
at it.  :-)

But I don't see why you think it's any more compatible with the
current tz format than the other ideas we've talked about.  All the
ideas will require changes to the compiled tz files; these changes can
and should be installed in a way that does not break old applications,
either by installing a completely new set of tz files, or by employing
unused fields in the old files.