[tz] Dropping iso3166.tab

[Paul_Koning at Dell.com]

On May 21, 2013, at 12:34 AM, Paul Eggert wrote:

> On 05/20/2013 05:10 PM, Paul_Koning at Dell.com wrote:
> 
>> Perhaps iso3166.tab can be separated out into its own distribution.
> 
> Thanks, that's a good idea.  Let me try to flesh it out.
> We can do something like the following:
> 
> (1) Remove iso3166.tab.  Others can take up its maintenance if they like.
> 
> (2) Say that zone.tab's column 1 is a comment, present only for backwards
>    compatibility, and with no information as far as the tz database
>    is concerned.  We can describe the backward-compatibility issue
>    in a comment, and mention that the contents of column 1 do not imply
>    an official position or endorsement of any territorial claims.
> 
> (3) Merge all Zones that are currently split only because of
>    national boundaries.  For example, merge Africa/Bangui,
>    Africa/Brazzaville, etc., into Africa/Lagos, since these zones
>    have all had the same clocks since 1970.  We would of course
>    retain backward-compatibility links for the merged zones, so
>    they'd continue to work.

I'd rather not do #3.  The fact that they haven't had the same clocks for the entire time covered by the tzdata project isn't something that should be relegated to second class status.  Also, the fact that they are under separate administration means that the clocks could easily diverge again.  For example, by this argument you might have merged the entry for Venezuela with other South American entries a few years ago -- but then the administration there decided to do something different.

	paul