Oscar van Vlijmen said:
Consistent data ---------------- One job should be done soon, I would like to suggest. That's to improve the consistency of the tz data within its format. If the tz data files were extremely consistent, programmers of non-unix applications had less manual labor to do, _much_ less, as I experienced myself for my Macintosh HyperCard application.
Do we have a formal syntax for the tz data files ? If we did, it would be trivial to write a tool that ensures that files remain consistent (and perhaps pretty-printed it as a side effect, allowing humans to check that it says what they think it says).
It has been proposed to xml-ize the tz data files. This would improve the transportability, but it would degrade the human readability.
I don't think that's necessary; plain text is perfectly transportable. -- Clive D.W. Feather | Work: <clive@demon.net> | Tel: +44 20 8371 1138 Internet Expert | Home: <clive@davros.org> | Fax: +44 20 8371 1037 Demon Internet | WWW: http://www.davros.org | DFax: +44 20 8371 4037 Thus plc | | Mobile: +44 7973 377646