[tz] suggestion: split "backward" into "backward" and "deprecated"

[Brian Inglis]

On 2020-05-03 20:36, Andrew Gierth wrote:
> (One further exception should be made: the link from Etc/UTC to UTC is
> in widespread use and should probably be moved to "etcetera" alongside
> the similar "GMT" link. Otherwise it should stay in "backward". This
> change already exists in FreeBSD, where all "GMT" defaults have been
> changed to "UTC" at some point.)

It is not clear what you mean by saying FreeBSD changed GMT defaults to UTC at
some point.

There is a subtle distinction here as legal time in English common law derived
legal systems is established by precedent, as GMT based mean solar time, not on
the ITU time scale based on the SI second with leap seconds UTC.

The difference between the legal basis of time derived from solar observations
and calculations, and the practice of disseminating time derived from UTC, has
not yet been tested in law, so dropping any distinction could be problematic,
especially now, with GB divorcing EU, to give English common law renewed
hegemony over GB laws in devolved assemblies, except for NI as regards time.

The statute in primary effect in England, Wales, and Scotland is still:

http://statutes.org.uk/site/the-statutes/nineteenth-century/1880-43-44-victoria-c-9-definition-of-time-act/

and it also currently pertains to NI, Isle of Man, the Channel Islands of
Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark; and by reference to GMT (often in local
equivalents of Interpretation, or Definition of Time, Acts), also to Ireland,
Belgium, Portugal, Canaries, Iceland, Faeroes, Canada, and a number of African
former territories of the British Empire and current members of the Commonwealth
(of Nations).

-- 
Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

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