[tz] tzdb timezone names/identifiers and links (was: Add new timezone for Hanoi Capital, Vietnam)

[Stephen Colebourne]

On Tue, 19 Feb 2019 at 16:35, Paul Eggert <eggert at cs.ucla.edu> wrote:
> If this continues to be a sore spot, I'm inclined to adjust the rules so
> that there need not at least one Link or Zone per country. This should
> help simplify future maintenance if, say, the US splits into multiple
> countries (and stuff like that does happen).

This will create more problems, not less. Time zones are by nature the
product of politics, so issues around countries/territories simply
can't be avoided. The rules already link to ISO 3166-1 code, thus the
key part of the problem is already sidestepped.

Hanoi is an edge case, because if the current rules were applied as of
1970, Hanoi would have to be an active zone.

> > setting "Vietnamese" data or systems to an "Asia/Bangkok" tzdb
> > identifier would, to some degree, effectively tie that data to Thai
> > legislation.

Vietnamese systems looking to future dates should be set to
Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh, shouldn't they?

Stephen