[tz] Time zone abbreviations

[Alois Treindl]

I think the change was made because many abbreviations were ambiguous.
In the US, AST is commonly used for Standard Alaska Time, 10h west of GMT.

See the entry in file NEWS of Release 2017a - 2017-02-28 00:05:36 -0800

>   Changes to past and future time zone abbreviations
>
>     Switch to numeric time zone abbreviations for South America, as
>     part of the ongoing project of removing invented abbreviations.
>     This avoids the need to invent an abbreviation for the new Chilean
>     new zone.  Similarly, switch from invented to numeric time zone
>     abbreviations for Afghanistan, American Samoa, the Azores,
>     Bangladesh, Bhutan, the British Indian Ocean Territory, Brunei,
>     Cape Verde, Chatham Is, Christmas I, Cocos (Keeling) Is, Cook Is,
>     Dubai, East Timor, Eucla, Fiji, French Polynesia, Greenland,
>     Indochina, Iran, Iraq, Kiribati, Lord Howe, Macquarie, Malaysia,
>     the Maldives, Marshall Is, Mauritius, Micronesia, Mongolia,
>     Myanmar, Nauru, Nepal, New Caledonia, Niue, Norfolk I, Palau,
>     Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Pitcairn, Qatar, Réunion, St
>     Pierre & Miquelon, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Singapore,
>     Solomon Is, Tokelau, Tuvalu, Wake, Vanuatu, Wallis & Futuna, and
>     Xinjiang; for 20-minute daylight saving time in Ghana before 1943;
>     for half-hour daylight saving time in Belize before 1944 and in
>     the Dominican Republic before 1975; and for Canary Islands before
>     1946, for Guinea-Bissau before 1975, for Iceland before 1969, for
>     Indian Summer Time before 1942, for Indonesia before around 1964,
>     for Kenya before 1960, for Liberia before 1973, for Madeira before
>     1967, for Namibia before 1943, for the Netherlands in 1937-9, for
>     Pakistan before 1971, for Western Sahara before 1977, and for
>     Zaporozhye in 1880-1924.
>
>     For Alaska time from 1900 through 1967, instead of "CAT" use the
>     abbreviation "AST", the abbreviation commonly used at the time
>     (Atlantic Standard Time had not been standardized yet).  Use "AWT"
>     and "APT" instead of the invented abbreviations "CAWT" and "CAPT".

On 07.09.19 07:15, Elena Sharovar wrote:
> Hi Iana Team,
>
> where can I find some explanation why in 2017a format changed from AST 
> to +03?
> and the same happened in a lot of timezones (letter abbreviations 
> changed to +03, +02, etc.)
>
> // 2016j
> Zone Asia/Riyadh 3:06:52 - LMT 1947 Mar 14
> 3:00 -*AST*
>
> //  2017a
> Zone Asia/Riyadh 3:06:52 - LMT 1947 Mar 14
> 3:00 - *+03*
>
> Thanks & Regards,
> Elena.
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