[tz] Fiji DST Oct 26

Paul_Koning at dell.com Paul_Koning at dell.com
Wed Oct 15 00:43:41 UTC 2014


I wouldn’t call no DST, when DST has been in place for a number of years, “status quo”.  It might be what the people making the decision thought of as the default answer, but if so it doesn’t appear they ever communicated that point of view.  Otherwise the TZ rules would have reflected it.  As it is, the database reflects the best guess of outside observers.

No one is forcing anything, but the authorities may want to consider the fact that global databases can’t be updated overnight.  So while it would be convenient to be able to make a decision one day ahead of time, it isn’t actually practical to do so.  If you want the rest of the world to be able to deal with the rules, they need to be communicated with some lead time.  I don’t know what the TZ maintainers think is a reasonable minimum; given additional processing in OS patch procedures etc., it really is desirable to get these decisions finalized at least a couple of months ahead of time.

As I’ve pointed out, some of us build systems where the lead times are closer to a year.

	paul

On Oct 14, 2014, at 6:41 PM, Ken Rylander <ken at lajbans.com.au> wrote:

> Hi Brian,
> 
> We have asked the Ministry multiple times, but no decision has been made.
> 
> I guess they see it as if the TZDB is "forcing" them to have DST this year. The Fiji Government have had DST the last couple of years, but never said it was permanent. The decision was always made each year. Never predicting anything about the future. So to them, not making any decision about DST in 2014, would mean status quo, i.e. no DST 2014.
> 
> Cheers,
> /Ken
> 
> On 14/10/2014 9:12 PM, Brian Inglis wrote:
>> On 2014-10-14 02:04, Ken Rylander wrote:
>>> There might be an issue with the Fiji DST (Pacific/Fiji), predicted to happen on Oct 26, at 3am. It looks like the Fiji government haven't yet decided on whether to have DST this year, or not. And in that case, on what date it will start. There was recently elections here, and it seems like the Fiji government haven't prioritised any decisions around DST.
>>> Taking this into consideration, and also the fact that this future, predicted date was introduced by the TZDB, would it be possible to get a tzdata version, where the DST for 2014 is removed?
>> 
>> How about asking your Ministry of Information to make an announcement
>> about whether or not Fiji will start DST on Oct 26 at 03.00, as the
>> rest of the world expects it to?
>> If not, times on some airline tickets may need adjusted, and all
>> computers updated, as soon as changes can be released by tz and IATA.
>> You government website provides many contact options for the Ministry.
> 


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