proposed tz data changes for Iran, Sri Lanka, Alberta, Thule, etc.

[Roozbeh Pournader]

روز پنجشنبه، 2006-03-23 ساعت 12:29 -0800، Paul Eggert نوشت:
> That is what we used to do (the British tradition), but in 2003 we
> changed it to the American tradition after you wrote "I have also
> changed the abbreviations to what is considered correct here in Iran,
> IRST for regular time and IRDT for daylight saving time."

Well, IRST is supposed to be used in contrast with IRDT. So I
think/thought no IRDT means no IRST either.

BTW, the only official-in-any-way document referring to these
abbreviations in Iran is a document I co-edited on computer locale
requirements. On the Latin abbreviations that should be used for
timezones, it mentions IRST for "normal time", IRDT for "daylight saving
time", and IRT for wall time. 

> If the Iranian parliament
> brings back daylight saving time in the future, will the abbreviations
> revert back?

Yes, I believe so.

(BTW, the board of ministers decides that instead of the parliament,
which is a bad thing, I believe. If it was the parliament, we could have
had advance notice instead of the sudden announcement.)

> And when exactly would the abbreviation for standard
> time change from "IRT" to "IRST"?

Well, I guess when the government decided to use daylight saving.

> The simplest option is to do nothing, and to stick with "IRST"/"IRDT".

After reading your comments, I believe this is the best way to go.
Ignore me.

roozbeh

PS: The politics of the daylight saving cancellation is interesting.
Many believe that daylight saving was removed not because "it was not
proved that it saves power" (to quote the board of ministers' spokesman,
while people would have appreciated something like "the reports on power
saving don't show a difference worth the switch" more), but to make the
prayer times more in-sync with the clock. This would help the more
traditional/older people (which is the new government's voter base), and
also helps in organizing mass prayers in governmental offices, schools,
etc, something the new government really likes.