Stephen Colebourne wrote:
+The file 'backward' consists of Link entries mapping deprecated names +to their replacements. Usage of a deprecated name is discouraged. +As such, the file permits canonicalization
We've never said the 'backward' names are deprecated before. Why start asking users to change names now? We have no plans to remove them. The business with 'canonical' is problematic, given that we're thinking of letting installers or users filter out names that are no different pre-1970 (or pre-whatever), and this may well omit names that would be considered 'canonical' by some. If we head in this direction, I expect that there will be no canonicalization that is good for all applications. Users who care only about post-1970 timestamps might consider Europe/Rome to be the canonical name for Europe/Vatican; users who care only about current and future timestamps might say Europe/Berlin; and users who care about political issues (or who assume the Vatican's secret archives will eventually uncover a local time differing from Rome's!) might consider Europe/Vatican to be canonical all by itself.