[tz] Proposal to deprecate "." and "-" in zone names

[Tobias Conradi]

CURRENT
ftp://ftp.iana.org/tz/code/Theory says
"Within a file name component, use only ASCII letters, `.', `-' and `_'."

In
ftp://ftp.iana.org/tz/data/zone.tab

I found none having "."

I found three having "-":

America/Blanc-Sablon
Africa/Porto-Novo
America/Port-au-Prince

PROPOSED
Change
ftp://ftp.iana.org/tz/code/Theory

"Within a file name component, use only ASCII letters and `_'."

REASONING
@"."
"." is not used, document current usage. Reduce number of possible variations.

@"-"
Reduce number of possible variations. Avoid discussions about names as
happened with the zone proposal for the Crozet Islands "Alfred-Faure"
vs "Alfred Faure".

@both
Some environments don't allow "/". Since "/" is part of the zone name,
a replacement may be needed. If "." and "-" are not allowed for zone
names anymore, then they can be used for replacing "/".

-- 
Tobias Conradi
Rheinsberger Str. 18
10115 Berlin
Germany

http://tobiasconradi.com/