[tz] [PROPOSED] Support zi parsers that mishandle negative DST offsets

[Paul Eggert]

Stephen Colebourne wrote:

> These are groups/teams for whom packaging/repackaging is their normal
> role. Its not comparable.

Sure it's comparable. We're not talking about crack teams of dozens of software 
maintainers. We're talking only about a simple script that I wrote in a few 
minutes, a script that can be run automatically. This sort of thing is routine 
in software, and it's not reasonable to dismiss it merely on the grounds that it 
is "packaging/repackaging".

> every user of these libraries has gone to IANA for the
> files for over 15 years

No, as IANA didn't start hosting the data until 2011. Users of these libraries 
evidently didn't have much trouble switching to iana.org, and they won't have 
much trouble switching to joda.org either.

> why not change zic or the tooling to alter
> the flag in the case of Ireland?

Because we're trying to model Irish time as best we can, and this includes 
modeling Irish Standard Time as standard time.
> We have had an agreement for many years

No, we never had any agreement to freeze the format. The zic input format has 
evolved in the past, and it will undoubtedly continue to evolve in the future.