Re: [tz] Astrakhan region got approval to change its time zone

On 02/12/2016 05:07 PM, Matt Johnson wrote:

Are we to carry this convention into other zones, and if so, what will we do for half-hour or 45-minute zones?

Yes, the idea is to experiment with this approach in the new zones (since they have no backwards-compatibility concerns) before using it in other zones. For non-hour zones I expect that we can use abbreviations like +05:45.

How do you feel about the RTZ1, RTZ2, etc. convention? Or the MSK+1, MSK+2, etc. convention that seems to actually be used in Russia?

tzdata is supposed to contain only English-language abbreviations. English text mostly just uses UTC offsets for these zones, except perhaps for "MSK". The other abbreviations are all purely our invention, if memory serves.