Time Zone Localizations

[John Cowan]

Mark Davis scripsit:

> 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.

Cool idea.  That way all other Canadians can hate New Yorkers up and
down and sideways, taking some of the pressure off Toronto.

> 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.

"will remain", I suppose.  No, Philadelphia (as of 1990, anyhow; I don't
have current population data) would take over as the exemplar.

> And if America/New_York is to be stable, that would, of course, be
> a huge mistake, akin to changing CS from Czechoslovakia to Serbia
> and Montenegro.  Simply because the city were renamed should have no
> effect on the TZID.

The TZID would be reassigned with an alias provided.  This has happened.
However, AFAIK no TZID has ever been reused with a different meaning.

-- 
Here lies the Christian,                        John Cowan
        judge, and poet Peter,                  http://www.reutershealth.com
Who broke the laws of God                       http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
        and man and metre.                      jcowan at reutershealth.com