[tz] Theory - proposal to delete the reference to population

[Russ Allbery]

David Patte <dpatte at relativedata.com> writes:

> I believe a navigator, sailing to an island, would like to know its
> recomended timezone, without having to prove it has any people currently
> living on the island first.

Why?  Of what possible use is the "local time" of an uninhabited island?
What, *specifically*, would the navigator use that time to do?

Time zones are fundamentally about coordination with other people; for
technical and scientific purposes, UTC and similar time standards serve
just fine.

Governments create enough work for database maintenance without pursuing
undefined concepts in the name of an unrealistic sense of completeness.

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra at stanford.edu)             <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>