[tz] Asia/Tomsk

[Victor Sudakov]

Paul Eggert wrote:

[dd]

> Another problem with abbreviations like NOVT is that their meanings 
> change with time. For example, NOVT stands for +06 now, but it stands 
> for +07 before October 2014, for +06 again before March 2011, etc. The 
> ambiguity of "NOVT" is atypical for English-language time zone 
> abbreviations, and this unexpected aspect of our invented abbreviations 
> can easily confuse non-experts.
> 
> In contrast, abbreviations like +06 and +07 are unambiguous.

For once in a while I agree with your argument. This is the same
reason I don't quite like the idea of calling Russian timezones
"MSK+4", "MSK-1" etc because the Moscow time itself is fickle: its UTC
offset has changed several times with the introduction and abolishment
of the decree time.

> 
> > So remove the feature entirely.
> 
> That's not a practical option, as time zone abbreviations are a standard 
> part of ISO C, of POSIX, and of many programming systems that use a 
> tzcode-like interface, so we need to put *something* in there. Numeric 
> abbreviations are reasonable placeholders for zones lacking 
> well-supported English-language time zone abbreviations.

I suggest a compromise: don't remove what's already there (like
KRAST), but don't invent any new abbreviations. Even if the original
source of "KRAST" is tzdata itself, it has already taken root
elswhere.

-- 
Victor Sudakov,  VAS4-RIPE, VAS47-RIPN
sip:sudakov at sibptus.tomsk.ru