[tz] [PROPOSED] Merge timezones that are alike since 1970

[Derick Rethans]

On Wed, 2 Jun 2021, Steffen Nurpmeso via tz wrote:

> Steffen Nurpmeso wrote in
>  <20210528222347.U4cDq%steffen at sdaoden.eu>:
>  |Stephen Colebourne wrote in
>  | <CACzrW9BnYgeYEcnfzDyVB6J4r2i_dZfnCE5jBDC-f6pdbAB+Uw at mail.gmail.com>:
>  ||This change would make sense if no pre-1970 data was available for any
>  ||zone (including LMT). But instead what users get is the data of
>  ||somewhere else.
>  ||
>  ||For example, Norway's and Sweden's time zone history is being wiped
>  ||out in favour of that of Germany. Can no-one here see the political
>  ||sensitivity in that?
> 
> I find it astonishing that this comes up over and over again.
> Like i said in 2019, Paul Eggert once said something about numeric
> IDs.  I like the idea of giving an anonymous ID to unique timezone
> "paths", and instead using links which point to the paths.  You
> know, what now is Europe/Berlin would be whatever airplane
> registration, and Europe/Berlin /Stockholm /xy would simply point
> to that, for example Europe/001.
> Whereas i do not think this would stop problems (if new paths
> would have to be introduced which can only be linked to one
> location that someone does not want to be linked), it would not be
> that apparent.

FWIW, the issue here isn't about the naming of zones. It is about 
removing historical data of one country, and replacing it by the 
historical data from a different country.

> And do not get me started on the ship-hating Britons either.

I don't hate ships.

cheers,
Derick

-- 
PHP 7.4 Release Manager
Host of PHP Internals News: https://phpinternals.news
Like Xdebug? Consider supporting me: https://xdebug.org/support
https://derickrethans.nl | https://xdebug.org | https://dram.io
twitter: @derickr and @xdebug