[tz] attic data for the tz database

[Paul Eggert]

On 08/29/2013 10:44 AM, Stephen Colebourne wrote:

> Links for spelling mistakes obviously cause no issues.

The "attic" data that I posted does not contain these links.
Its zones all contain pre-1970 data we discarded, typically
by turning the zones into links.  This common practice
hasn't caused problems for users.

> other applications parse the source files, including Java.

I don't think we need to change the zic input format, so
these applications should be OK.  Any "Version" line in the
attic data can be filtered out before presenting it to zic.

> zones split as well as merge

Sure, and when that happens we should create new zones as
needed.  It's not practical or necessary for us to
anticipate zone splits that might or might not occur.

> Until you have a comprehensive solution to the pre-1970 issue

We are not likely to ever have a comprehensive solution to
the pre-1970 issue.  Too many data were never recorded or
were lost, and much of what little we have is fabricated.
Insisting on a comprehensive solution before making
improvements would mean we could never make improvements.

The changes in the github tz repository are experimental,
and there needs to be room to experiment.  I plan to restore
the data you've expressed concern about, along with other
data that's been discarded over the years.  Please be
patient while we figure out a good way to go about this.