[tz] Using the tzdb: What's actually changed

[Watson Ladd]

Dear all,
I see lots and lots of people who seem to be running applications that
care about pre 1970 timestamps and don't use backzones, or seem to
ignore links. Well, if you ignore links you deserve what you get: it's
been documented that zones may become links.

The size of tzdb has already caused problems for some embedded
devices. Post-1970 correctness only strikes me as very reasonable.
Applications that need more should use backzones, and this has been
true for years.

If you care about the truth of what time something happened, and it
was recorded in local time, and the zone that it was in might need to
get split in the future, and that split could change when the time was
or other times you care about then the database isn't your problem,
reality is.

I see a lot of complaints, and very few details about the applications
affected. Which makes me skeptical they actually exist. Remember,
you're only affected if you deal with pre-1970 timestamps.

Sincerely,
Watson
-- 
Astra mortemque praestare gradatim