[tz] Preparing to fork tzdb

[Murray S. Kucherawy]

On Mon, Sep 20, 2021 at 8:52 AM Stephen Colebourne via tz <tz at iana.org>
wrote:

> On Mon, 20 Sept 2021 at 11:48, Eliot Lear via tz <tz at iana.org> wrote:
> > I think it's a bad idea to fork for a great many reasons, only a few of
> which are the following:
> >
> > Time confusion going forward, with new inconsistencies being introduced.
> > Implementer confusion in terms of which code base is more up-to-date;
> worse if the code base fragments.
> > Fragmentation of expertise among volunteers
> >
> > I fear that you drastically underestimate the effort that has been
> required to maintain both the code and the data.
>
> If you read carefully, my original mail proposed forking the data - it
> did not propose forking the code. I imagine this would be a case where
> the fork would follow each commit in tzdb, including the code changes,
> but seeking to maintain the data set as it should be.
>

Speaking as a participant only:

I agree with Eliot.  Though I'm a relative newcomer to this particular
space, I have never seen a successful fork of the nature you're
describing.  You make it sound simple here, but I would bank on the
inevitability of some change being introduced into the original data that
cannot be trivially merged into the fork.  I wouldn't want to be the person
responsible for sorting that out while simultaneously tracking all of the
other issues the current coordinator handles on a regular basis.

-MSK
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