[tz] [PATCH 0/2] Follow Australian common usage and update CST/CST to CST/CDT and EST/EST to EST/EDT etc [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Ian Abbott abbotti at mev.co.uk
Fri Apr 12 11:16:19 UTC 2013


On 2013-04-11 17:53, Dennis Ferguson wrote:
> I would note, however, that the proposed patch doesn't just limit itself
> to reducing the ambiguity of future timestamps not yet recorded, it also
> changes the database information about the abbreviations used for historical
> timestamps produced by the TZ database.  While the issue of what time zone
> abbreviations people in Australia might have preferred to use is for others
> to debate there can be no dispute about the abbreviations the TZ database
> has used for the last 20 years, nor is there any way to change that, but
> by altering that data one is effectively removing the information about the
> history of the database itself that one would need to know to interpret
> timestamps already recorded with the "unwitting use" of the TZ database.

That's all the more reason to add the 'A' prefix to the new 
abbreviations, I think, just so it's easier to tell if an old date 
string is using the old abbreviation or the new one.

-- 
-=( Ian Abbott @ MEV Ltd.    E-mail: <abbotti at mev.co.uk>        )=-
-=( Tel: +44 (0)161 477 1898   FAX: +44 (0)161 718 3587         )=-


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