On 2019-06-16 19:14, Paul Eggert wrote:
Internet RFC 8536 uses names that differ a bit from the names historically used in tzdb. The RFC uses "utoff" instead of "gmtoff" for UT (GMT) offsets, and "desigidx" instead of "abbrind" for designator (abbreviation) indexes. Going forward it’s better to stick with the RFC terminology in internal identifiers.
The "GMTOFF" field in tzdb input files is related to, but certainly not the same, as the UTOFF field in TZif output files. Using the same identifier for both fields may therefore be seen not to be very helpful; such cases are called "polysemy" in some standardization circles. If the "GMTOFF" field is going to be renamed then the new name should differ from names of (related but) different entities; 'STDOFF' would be a better choice in my opinion. Of course, "internal" identifiers are not relevant for the semantics of tzdb data; their choice is a purely pragmatic issue. Changing one of them therefore must be considered for its pragmatic utility which I cannot fully estimate. Michael Deckers.