[tz] [PATCH] Revert recent pre-1970 changes.

[Stephen Colebourne]

On 1 September 2013 05:14, Paul Eggert <eggert at cs.ucla.edu> wrote:
> Stephen Colebourne wrote:
>> The Theory change reinstates the one zone per ISO-3166
>> region requirement.
>
> I'm afraid that's incorrect.  That change would strengthen
> the requirement beyond what it ever was, by requiring a Zone
> to be present for every country.  That has never been
> required and has never been the practice in the tz database.

You are mistaken.

You removed the requirement in commit
https://github.com/jodastephen/tz/commit/d3b025adb25554ee10b986850371e573df92733e

It was first added 16 years ago in commit
https://github.com/jodastephen/tz/commit/9d0f6c217dc26489d32e7fb119ea29fecf756598

This patch simply reinstates the long-standing practice of the database.

> There is no timekeeping reason to undo the changes already
> agreed upon in this area and incorporated in the 2013d
> stable release, nor is there any timekeeping reason to add
> the proposed requirement.  It's purely a political
> requirement.

The politics is of your own making. (The 2013d release is essentially
faulty because of this) Removing this rule has caused much of this
debate. Reinstating it is entirely appropriate.

> The other changes in that proposed patch seem to be an
> attempt to implement the Theory change.  While not affecting
> timestamps (they are internal administration), they use a
> style that emphasizes the roles of countries more.  This
> would increase the future political pressures on tz database
> maintenance, and I don't see how that would be a step
> forward.  We should be deemphasizing political issues, not
> emphasizing them more.

They are nothing more than a reversal of all your recent damaging
changes which I thought you'd agreed to revert. They simply put back
the correct and long-standing way of working for the tzdb.

ISO-3166 codes are important to the vast majority of actual
applications that care about time-zones. They are widely used as the
canonical definition of countries/territories/regions and are used
without political issue by others. I have no idea why the use of the
most widely accepted standard in this are makes things worse.

Anyway, the patch simply undoes the damage caused since May 2013. It
doesn't add anything new.

Stephen