Re: [tz] [PATCH 2/3] Replace some zones with links when that doesn't lose non-LMT info.

On Sep 4, 2013, at 2:23 PM, Garrett Wollman <wollman@csail.mit.edu> wrote:

I do think, on a more general level, that it is a bit unfortunate that the format of the tzdata files is now effectively frozen because so many external users have chosen to parse the source rather than the compiled form. This will make it much more difficult to make changes in the future, should they be needed.

If we want to do that (e.g., if we were to introduce the CLDR concept of meta-zones into the tzdb, so that the CLDR doesn't have to duplicate transition time/date information that's in the tzdb - see the usesMetazone items in metaZones.xml), we might end up creating a new source file format and have a tool that reads the new format and emits the old format.