[tz] Breach of tzdb charter: Merging timezones is not within the charter

[Guy Harris]

On Jun 4, 2021, at 5:51 AM, Emily Crandall Fleischman via tz <tz at iana.org> wrote:

> That's not true: Canada and the US had different DST rules until 1976,
> so their zones should remain distinct.
> 
> On Thu, 3 Jun 2021 at 22:07, David Patte via tz <tz at iana.org> wrote:
>> 
>> if all the backfiles do correctly link to the proposed main coalesced tz
>> zones at their appropriate date/time, then that would work as well, but
>> i would then work by accessing via the backfiles first.
>> 
>> btw, for interest, the new main coalesced zone for New_York would
>> include an area reaching from nearly Manitoba to the Atlantic, and
>> include Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec City , or about 1/2 of
>> Canada's population.

Yes, they should remain distinct, and they do remain distinct.

Here's Paul's comment for the change:

    Merge timezones that are alike since 1970
    
    * NEWS: Describe the change and its motivation.
    * Makefile (TZS_DEPS, check_tables): Depend on YDATA, not just
    PRIMARY_YDATA, since etcetera matters here.
    * africa (Africa/Abidjan, Ghana, Africa/Accra, Indian/Reunion)
    (Indian/Mahe):
    * antarctica (Indian/Kerguelen, Antarctica/DumontDUrville)
    (Antarctica/Syowa, Antarctica/Vostok):
    * asia (Asia/Brunei, Asia/Urumqi, NBorneo, Asia/Kuala_Lumpur)
    (Asia/Kuching, Indian/Maldives, Asia/Riyadh, Asia/Bangkok)
    (Asia/Dubai):
    * australasia (Indian/Christmas, Indian/Cocos, Pacific/Gambier)
    (Pacific/Tahiti, Pacific/Tarawa, Pacific/Majuro, Pacific/Chuuk)
    (Pacific/Pohnpei, Pacific/Palau, Pacific/Port_Moresby)
    (Pacific/Guadalcanal, Pacific/Funafuti, Pacific/Wake)
    (Pacific/Wallis):
    * europe (Denmark, Europe/Copenhagen, Iceland, Atlantic/Reykjavik)
    (Lux, Europe/Luxembourg, Europe/Monaco, Neth, Europe/Amsterdam)
    (Norway, Europe/Oslo, Europe/Stockholm):
    * northamerica (America/Blanc-Sablon, America/Atikokan)
    (America/Creston, Bahamas, America/Nassau):
    * southamerica (America/La_Paz, America/Curacao, America/Cayenne)
    (Atlantic/South_Georgia, America/Port_of_Spain):
    Move these duplicate Zone entries to 'backzone', and add
    backward-compatibility links in 'backward'.
    * checktab.awk: Don’t worry about links to Etc/*.
    * theory.html: Change examples to avoid merged-away zones.  Remove
    references to SET, and to Amsterdam, Bangkok, Copenhagen and Port
    Moresby Mean Times.
    * zone.tab, zone1970.tab: Change 3rd column to avoid links in
    'backward', which might not be present.
    * zone1970.tab: Merge lines to match the above changes.

Note that America/Toronto is *not* one of the tzdb regions that disappears, so no, the new main coalesced zone for New_York does *not* include, for example, Toronto.