Mark Davis scripsit:
3. What is the meaning of an TZID
Just what is the meaning of "meaning" in this context?
4. What is the versioning scheme, including assurance that: - once a version is issued it is never changed. - TZIDs are stable, in the sense that they will never be withdrawn or reused with a substantially different semantic in later versions
Again, what does that mean? New York might move to a new timezone, if Congress so decided, or if it became an independent country (hey, we pay them more than they pay us). In that case the Eastern zone would have to be renamed America/Philadelphia, or whatever. More probably, Congress might change the DST rules, in which case the current predictions of the U.S. zones would become incorrect and would have to be updated. The only other conceivable scenario would be for the Big Apple to have its name changed (Nueva York might be a possibility). In that case, some other New York might come to prominence such that it became the largest city in some other time zone in the Americas. That's not very likely, but it would constitute a genuine reuse. The advantage and disadvantage of Olson TZIDs is that they aren't arbitrary: they depend entirely on facts on the ground. -- John Cowan jcowan@reutershealth.com http://www.reutershealth.com "Mr. Lane, if you ever wish anything that I can do, all you will have to do will be to send me a telegram asking and it will be done." "Mr. Hearst, if you ever get a telegram from me asking you to do anything, you can put the telegram down as a forgery."