[tz] Pulling the data apart ...

[random832 at fastmail.us]

On Sun, Sep 15, 2013, at 12:23, Michael Deckers wrote:
> 
>     On 2013-09-13 18:32, Alan Barrett wrote:
> 
> >  The input format is documented in the zic(8) man page.  Here's the
> >  relevant part:
> >      Input lines are made up of fields.  Fields are separated from
> >      one another by any number of white space characters.
> 
>     Actually, "one or more" seems to be meant rather than "any number"
>     (which would include zero).

It would also include negative numbers, and nonintegers, and complex
numbers. The fact that they're _separated_ implies there is at least one
character, because if not then there is no separation.