Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 15:12:25 -0800 From: "Paul Schauble" <Paul.Schauble@ticketmaster.com> Message-ID: <0165EECEBB4CF745ACF095E1176B03EA03A22C1C@SUNCA-EXB-AV1.ticketmaster.corp> | To me, it makes much more sense to name the entity to which the change | applies. The problem is that we don't know how to do that. Or not in any consistent way. The current naming scheme wasn't the original, it was chosen after much discussion as the only one that was likely to remain functional. The concept is simple - and all relates to human factors relating to the time - it is almost inconceivable to imagine a city being able to operate with two different timezones in it. Thus, naming the zone by a city that contains it is feasible ay least (the big problem is more that not every timezone contains anything that even comes close to a city - but in general, if there's no-one living there, or working there, then what time it is, really doesn't matter...) On the other hand, there's nothing else that you can say that about, that we know of. There's no other entity that we can reasonably expect to have a consistent view of the time, when considered worldwide. Rather than repeat all this discussion, again, and get everyone's opinion, again, (naming -of anything- is always an issue upon which everyone has an opinion) I would ask that if you don't like the current scheme, don't complain about it, instead come up with a detailed proposal for a new scheme. That would include a full set of new names for all the existing different timezones, and the basis from which those were derived in a form that it can be applied (without argument) to create new names when new distinct zones are created. You also need to document the procedure when what was one timezone becomes two - who gets the old name, and who gets a new one (ie: how is that decision made). Eg: if the name of the timezone in Alberta were America/Alberta (with or without Canada included) who gets to be America/Alberta should Alberta to an Indiana and split itself into two different zones? If you're not able, or prepared, to do that, then please don't complain about the scheme that we have, which, for all the minor problems that sometimes occur, actually works. kre