[tz] Request for change to the tz database

Philip Paeps philip at trouble.is
Tue Feb 9 01:23:58 UTC 2021


On 2021-02-09 08:07:29 (+0800), Robert Elz wrote:
>     Date:        Mon, 8 Feb 2021 14:28:24 -0800
>     From:        Guy Harris <gharris at sonic.net>
>     Message-ID:  <90554020-92B9-46CA-83DF-AC914E612DBE at sonic.net>
>
>   | None; the issue is that the city names are *English-language* city 
> names,
>
> Yes.
>
>   | and should reflect the most common English-language 
> transliteration
>   | of non-English-language names.
>
> But not that.
>
> English names (whatever they are of) do not need transliterating into 
> English, they already are.  For some places English uses what are 
> (effectively) transliterations of the local name, for others, the name 
> isn't even similar Bangkok's name in Thai transliterates as 
> Krungthep[MaHa.....] (it keeps going, it is a very long name, but is 
> most commonly abbreviated to Krungthep) (the leading K is pronounced 
> like a G in English).   In tz we use Bangkok, as that's the English 
> name.

I think the full Thai name of Bangkok (transliterated) would break 
NAME_MAX on many systems. :)

> I don't much care what Kiev/Kyiv is called in English (Kiev is what it 
> has always been to me, and will probably remain that way, but it isn't 
> as if I use the name anywhere other than here).    However, the 
> content of recent messages makes it appear that someone has started a 
> campaign ("Please help get the name changed, by sending e-mail to... 
> and in it say ...").   Because of that I am (for now) opposed to 
> making any change at all to this one (and I don't care what Google, or 
> various newspapers, etc, have decided to do).   If we start paying 
> attention to this kind of thing we're simply inviting it to happen 
> again.   So say, "Sorry, no, your campaign has caused us to decide to 
> retain the current name" and nothing else.

It's pretty clear that there's a campaign on.  My gut reaction to people 
ganging up and screaming loudly is also to be more stubborn.  However, 
this windmill has been tilting for much longer than the campaign has 
been on.  At this stage, tilting back really isn't constructive.

Philip

-- 
Philip Paeps
Senior Reality Engineer
Alternative Enterprises


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