[tz] Windows 8.1 and tz data?

[Paul Eggert]

Donald MacQueen wrote:
> I did not see this mentioned on the tz list and an hour's googling
> brings me no joy.

Whoops, it appears that I misunderstood the Microsoft documentation. 
Does the attached patch (installed into the experimental repository) 
explain things sufficiently?  I don't know the Microsoft developer 
universe, so if the language can be further improved please let me know.

-------------- next part --------------
From 6e8bcc7d744ddfc33fd385665a0d0a88625a495c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Paul Eggert <eggert at cs.ucla.edu>
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 16:48:29 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] Fix misstatement about Microsoft Windows support.

* tz-link.htm, NEWS: Fix misstatement about which part of the
Microsoft Windows software universe supports tz database names.
(Thanks to Donald MacQueen.)
---
 NEWS        | 11 ++++++++++-
 tz-link.htm | 13 ++++++-------
 2 files changed, 16 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index ba6e601..cefa3b3 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,6 +1,15 @@
 News for the tz database
 
 
+Unreleased, experimental changes
+
+  Changes affecting commentary and documentation
+
+    Microsoft Windows 8.1 doesn't support tz database names.  (Thanks
+    to Donald MacQueen.)  Instead, the Microsoft Windows Store app
+    library supports them.
+
+
 Release 2014a - 2014-03-07 23:30:29 -0800
 
   Changes affecting near-future time stamps
@@ -48,7 +57,7 @@ Release 2014a - 2014-03-07 23:30:29 -0800
 
       Mention xCal (Internet RFC 6321) and jCal.
 
-      Microsoft Windows 8.1 and later support tz database names.
+      Microsoft has some support for tz database names.
 
       CLDR data is available in both XML and JSON form.
 
diff --git a/tz-link.htm b/tz-link.htm
index c820e98..c7af0f8 100644
--- a/tz-link.htm
+++ b/tz-link.htm
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 <meta http-equiv="Content-type" content='text/html; charset="US-ASCII"'>
 <meta name="DC.Creator" content="Eggert, Paul">
 <meta name="DC.Contributor" content="Olson, Arthur David">
-<meta name="DC.Date" content="2014-02-19">
+<meta name="DC.Date" content="2014-03-10">
 <meta name="DC.Description"
  content="Sources of information about time zones and daylight saving time">
 <meta name="DC.Identifier"
@@ -57,7 +57,6 @@ title="Advanced Interactive eXecutive">AIX</abbr></a>,
 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry_10">BlackBerry 10</a>,
 <a href="http://www.apple.com/ios/"><abbr
 title="iPhone OS">iOS</abbr></a>,
-<a href="http://windows.microsoft.com/">Microsoft Windows</a>,
 <a href="http://h71000.www7.hp.com/">Open<abbr
 title="Virtual Memory System">VMS</abbr></a>,
 <a href="http://oracle.com/database">Oracle Database</a>,
@@ -404,14 +403,14 @@ Schedules Information Manual</a> of the
 <a href="http://iata.org/index.htm">International Air Transport
 Association</a>
 gives current time zone rules for airports served by commercial aviation.</li>
-<li>Although Microsoft Windows 8.1 and later supports
-the <code><abbr>tz</abbr></code> database names directly, many of its
-applications use time zone information in an undocumented format
-from earlier releases, with <abbr>ID</abbr>s that can be mapped to
+<li>Some Microsoft Windows versions contain time zone information in
+an undocumented format, with <abbr>ID</abbr>s that can be mapped to
 <code><abbr>TZ</abbr></code> values using the <a
 href="http://unicode.org/cldr/charts/supplemental/zone_tzid.html">Zone
 &rarr; Tzid table</a> in the <abbr>CLDR</abbr> data mentioned
-below.</li>
+below, or via <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps">Windows
+Store apps</a> classes such as <a
+href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/dn264145.aspx">DateTimeFormatter</a>.</li>
 </ul>
 <h2>Maps</h2>
 <ul>
-- 
1.8.3.2