[tz] tabs vs spaces

[random832 at fastmail.us]

On Fri, May 3, 2013, at 9:32, Robert Elz wrote:
> Rather we should be encouraging people to use the binary output files
> from
> zic for almost all purposes when they need something more than standard
> libc functions provide.   And if that means documenting that format, more
> than is already done, then let's do it.   It is already difficult to the
> point
> of almost impossibility to make much in the way of changes to that file
> format,

Actually, it is extensible by A) adding new data to the end of the
existing data and/or B) altering the 15 bytes of reserved fields
available in the headers. It would be necessary to determine if there
are any existing libc implementations that would choke on such a
modification, of course.

I've been sitting on an idea for a proposal to extend the format,
actually, to support localized timezone names and/or keys for looking up
such localized information in a database such as CLDR. The main purpose
of such a change would be A) to allow for programs to support localized
information without having to parse XML and B) to remove the need to
immediately update and deploy a new version of CLDR if a new zone is
added or changes to a different named timezone (e.g. timezones in
indiana moving from eastern to central a few years ago)