On 2021-11-05 07:03:33 (+0800), Stephen Colebourne via tz wrote:
On Wed, 3 Nov 2021 at 22:40, Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu> wrote:
On 10/18/21 06:07, Stephen Colebourne via tz wrote:
The ironclad rule (AFAICT) is that there was always an *ID* for each ISO country, and that the data it returned was acceptably accurate, not outrageously wrong.
While we could quibble about how "ironclad" the rule was, the tzdb certainly leaned in that direction until comparatively recently. That aside though, I completely support the second half of this sentence as a guiding principle of what the tzdb ought to provide. Acceptably accurate, not outrageously wrong.
If you genuinely do want to reduce your volunteer work to only be the abstract post-1970 regions and not to maintain any data pre-1970, then you really should be clear about that. You could then look for an alternate maintainer of tzdb itself as you would be maintaining what amounts to a new database, which would best sit in a different git repo. That data could then be an input to tzdb itself.
In all the heated discussions we've had on this mailing list in recent months, I don't believe we actually discussed the way the tzdb is maintained and whether we can improve it. There was a suggestion to replace Paul as coordinator. I do not support this. As far as I can tell, we never discussed the maintenance process. We seem to be taking it for granted that the coordinators (Paul and Tim) are doing all the work maintaining the tzdb. Other contributions are essentially updates to historical information and upcoming changes to transitions, which the coordinators merely merge and credit. This way of working places a huge burden on the coordinators. I cannot find any reason to criticise Paul for wanting to reduce his maintenance workload. While I do not agree with the consequences of merging time zone regions, under the circumstances the premise is sound. Maybe we can spread the burden of maintenance over more volunteers. Note that I am not suggesting we replace the coordinators or abolish their role. Instead of both coordinating and doing all the work, others could step up and volunteer to help maintain the data. Stephen, you have been very vocal about supporting one identifier per ISO code. Would you volunteer to putting in the work of maintaining this? Are others on this list willing to help share this work? Paul/Tim, would you support coordinating the efforts of additional maintainers and ensuring that what ends up in the repository continues to meet the high standards of quality the community expects? Philip -- Philip Paeps Senior Reality Engineer Alternative Enterprises