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

[Paul Eggert]

On 5/29/21 5:24 PM, Stephen Colebourne via tz wrote:

> It is hugely "political" to say that Norway or Sweden are of no
> importance to tzdb.

It would be "political" to say that, but nobody is saying that. Norway 
and Sweden are just as important to tzdb as Angola, Slovakia, etc. Those 
other countries don't have distinct Zones, and there's no justification 
(other than inertia) for treating Norway and Sweden differently.

> countries sometimes fight wars. This cannot be
> hidden or brushed under the carpet.

The guidelines say that tzdb doesn't attempt to track boundary changes 
due to wars in any detailed way. It would be impractical for tzdb to do 
otherwise, given its current organization. I haven't seen any realistic 
proposal to change this.

> And you've had repeated pushback from the list on your ill-advised
> "cleanups".

And despite repeated predictions of serious problems, cleanups to remove 
unnecessarily political data have worked out well. To the extent that 
they've forestalled political disputes they've been a net plus for the 
project. (Of course it is hard to show a negative.)