America/Edmonton 2007

[Robert Elz]

    Date:        Tue, 7 Feb 2006 15:12:25 -0800
    From:        "Paul Schauble" <Paul.Schauble at ticketmaster.com>
    Message-ID:  <0165EECEBB4CF745ACF095E1176B03EA03A22C1C at SUNCA-EXB-AV1.ticketmaster.corp>

  | To me, it makes much more sense to name the entity to which the change
  | applies.

The problem is that we don't know how to do that.   Or not in any
consistent way.   The current naming scheme wasn't the original,
it was chosen after much discussion as the only one that was likely
to remain functional.

The concept is simple - and all relates to human factors relating to
the time - it is almost inconceivable to imagine a city being able to
operate with two different timezones in it.   Thus, naming the zone
by a city that contains it is feasible ay least (the big problem is
more that not every timezone contains anything that even comes close
to a city - but in general, if there's no-one living there, or working
there, then what time it is, really doesn't matter...)

On the other hand, there's nothing else that you can say that about,
that we know of.   There's no other entity that we can reasonably expect
to have a consistent view of the time, when considered worldwide.

Rather than repeat all this discussion, again, and get everyone's opinion,
again, (naming -of anything- is always an issue upon which everyone has
an opinion) I would ask that if you don't like the current scheme, don't
complain about it, instead come up with a detailed proposal for a new
scheme.

That would include a full set of new names for all the existing different
timezones, and the basis from which those were derived in a form that it
can be applied (without argument) to create new names when new distinct zones
are created.   You also need to document the procedure when what was one
timezone becomes two - who gets the old name, and who gets a new one
(ie: how is that decision made).   Eg: if the name of the timezone in
Alberta were America/Alberta (with or without Canada included) who gets
to be America/Alberta should Alberta to an Indiana and split itself into
two different zones?

If you're not able, or prepared, to do that, then please don't complain
about the scheme that we have, which, for all the minor problems that
sometimes occur, actually works.

kre