Time Zone Localizations

[Paul Eggert]

"Mark Davis" <mark.davis at jtcsv.com> writes:

> There are at least two choices:
>
> 1. America/New_York will always be the timezone for the city of New
> York, even if it secedes from the US, joins Canada, and goes on
> Newfoundland time.

That's correct.

> 2. America/New_York is a stand-in for US Eastern Time. If New York
> City secedes and changes, the America/New_York TZID will associated
> with US Eastern Time.

No, America/New_York is intended to be New York time.

> And if America/New_York is to be stable, that would, of course, be a huge
> mistake,

That's what the 'backward' file is for.  For example, when we
discovered that the name "Ulaanbaatar" had become far more common in
English than "Ulan Bator", we renamed Asia/Ulan_Bator to
Asia/Ulaanbaatar and put a link in the "backward" file.  This sort of
thing happens occasionally, just as ISO 3166 renames country codes.

> they have to have a clear meaning so that when the "facts on ground"
> change, one can have reasonable expectations as to what principles
> would be maintained in adjusting the TZIDs to the new circumstances.

This issue is discussed at length in the Theory file.