Not having a standard format for zone table comments is creating ambiguity. For example: 1 Thule / Pituffik 2 Pohnpei (Ponape) 3 Nova Scotia (peninsula) 4 peninsular Malaysia 5 Eastern Time - Pangnirtung, Nunavut 6 Central Time - Campeche, Yucatán 1 and 2 are different formats for alternate names/spellings. 3 shows a sub-region, but uses the same format as the previous alternate name. 4 places the sub-region before the region, where 3 has it after and uses a different format. 5 and 6 use the same format, but 5 defines a single sub-region while 6 defines two regions. These ambiguities make it impossible to interpret the comments without having prior knowledge of the area. This patch set is an effort to standardize the column 4 comments format as follows: A dash (-) is consistently used to delimit a zone_id prefix, so that was retained. A comma (,) is consistently used to delimit regions, so that was retained. Using a slash (/) to delimit alternate names/spellings is accepted English grammar, so that was chosen. Placing sub-regions after regions facilitates having list items begin in uppercase (which is both aesthetically pleasing and grammatically correct) and improves the usability of a sorted list; so that was chosen. Delimiting sub-regions with with curved braces () is in current practice, so that was chosen. Finally two letter codes for regions/sub-regions are included at the end of the sub-region(s) within the curved braces. Multiple regions grouped with the same sub-region(s) are delimited with a comma between the final region of the group and the sub-region(s). Region sub-region groups are delimited from other regions with a semicolon. At least one zone_id or region must be given. When adding a foreign country code to a zone_id on border locations, add it after the zone_id to accommodate implementations that sort the list. This will group zone_id's together, for example: Mountain Time - Chihuahua (away from US border) Mountain Time US - Chihuahua (near US border) Use full words in favor of abbreviations. This format can be represent as: [zone_id] [-] [region[(sub_region, ... [2_letter_code, ... ])][,|;] ... ] There currently are no zone table comments that model the full specification, so here is an imaginary example of the full spec: Central Scooter Time - Yamaha (YZ); Harley, Davidson, Sprint, (west coast XL, XR, FL, ST); Honda (most locations CB, CR), Suzuki, Kawasaki, Vespa The following changes since commit 99b658c3a129dfd0cb777337575e200656b8ff9d: * NEWS, Theory: Clear up descriptions of tzdata abbreviations. (2016-02-14 12:36:54 -0800) are available in the git repository at: git@github.com:jwpi/tz.git zonetab0215 for you to fetch changes up to cf921321194419bc88104da5d7a3a7cfac0ca47e: Standardize zone table comment format (2016-02-20 11:30:20 -0500) ---------------------------------------------------------------- J William Piggott (5): Holiday Islands does not exist. North of Scoresbysund is named National Park Durango is not a border state Use proper names for Baja California States Standardize zone table comment format australasia | 8 +++ europe | 8 +++ northamerica | 6 +- zone.tab | 240 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------------------------- zone1970.tab | 250 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------------------------------- 5 files changed, 264 insertions(+), 248 deletions(-) --- 8< Example zone1970.tab comments using the standardized format: Adelaide Island (Rothera Station) Anvers Island (Palmer Station) Holme Bay (Mawson Station) Vestfold Hills (Davis Station) Bailey Peninsula (Casey Station) Lake Vostok (Vostok Station) Adélie Land (Dumont-d'Urville Station) East Ongul Island (Syowa Station) Queen Maud Land (Troll Station) Buenos Aires (BA, CF) Argentina (most locations CB, CC, CN, ER, FM, MN, SE, SF) Salta (SA, LP, NQ, RN) Jujuy (JY) Tucumán (TM) Catamarca (CT), Chubut (CH) La Rioja (LR) San Juan (SJ) Mendoza (MZ) San Luis (SL) Santa Cruz (SC) Tierra del Fuego (TF) Samoa, Midway Lord Howe Island Macquarie Island Tasmania (most locations) Tasmania (King Island) Victoria New South Wales (most locations) New South Wales (Yancowinna) Queensland (most locations) Queensland (Whitsunday Islands) South Australia Northern Territory Western Australia (most locations) Western Australia (Eucla) Atlantic islands Pará (east), Amapá Northeast Brazil (MA, PI, CE, RN, PB) Pernambuco Tocantins Alagoas, Sergipe Bahia South Brazil, Southeast Brazil, (GO, DF, MG, ES, RJ, SP, PR, SC, RS) Mato Grosso do Sul Mato Grosso Pará (west) Rondônia Roraima Amazonas (east) Amazonas (west) Acre Newfoundland, Labrador (southeast) Atlantic Time - Nova Scotia (peninsula), Prince Edward Island Atlantic Time - Nova Scotia (Cape Breton) Atlantic Time - New Brunswick Atlantic Time - Labrador (most locations) Atlantic Standard Time - Quebec (Lower North Shore) Eastern Time - Ontario, Quebec, (most locations) Eastern Time - Ontario, Quebec, (places that did not observe DST 1967-1973) Eastern Time - Ontario (Thunder Bay) Eastern Time - Nunavut (most eastern locations) Eastern Time - Nunavut (Pangnirtung) Central Time - Nunavut (Resolute) Eastern Standard Time - Ontario (Atikokan), Nunavut (Southampton Island) Central Time - Nunavut (central) Central Time - Ontario (west), Manitoba Central Time - Ontario (Rainy River, Fort Frances) Central Standard Time - Saskatchewan (most locations) Central Standard Time - Saskatchewan (midwest) Mountain Time - Alberta, British Columbia (east), Saskatchewan (west) Mountain Time - Nunavut (west) Mountain Time - Northwest Territories (central) Mountain Time - Northwest Territories (west) Mountain Standard Time - British Columbia (Creston) Mountain Standard Time - British Columbia (Dawson Creek, Fort Saint John) Mountain Standard Time - British Columbia (Fort Nelson) Pacific Time - British Columbia (west) Pacific Time - Yukon (south) Pacific Time - Yukon (north) Swiss Time Chile (most locations) Easter Island Beijing Time Xinjiang Time Germany (most locations) Ecuador (mainland) Galápagos Islands Spain (mainland) Ceuta, Melilla Canary Islands Chuuk/Truk, Yap Pohnpei/Ponape Kosrae Greenland (most locations) National Park (east coast) Scoresbysund/Ittoqqortoormiit Thule/Pituffik Java, Sumatra Borneo (west, central) Borneo (east, south), Sulawesi (Celebes), Bali, Nusa Tengarra, Timor (west) New Guinea (West Papua / Irian Jaya), Maluku/Moluccas Gilbert Islands Phoenix Islands Line Islands Kazakhstan (most locations) Qyzylorda/Kyzylorda/Kzyl-Orda Aqtobe/Aktobe Atyrau/Atirau/Gur'yev, Mangghystau/Mankistau West Kazakhstan Marshall Islands (most locations) Kwajalein Mongolia (most locations) Bayan-Ölgii, Govi-Altai, Hovd, Uvs, Zavkhan Dornod, Sükhbaatar Central Time Eastern Standard Time - Quintana Roo Central Time - Campeche, Yucatán Central Time - Durango; Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, (away from US border) Central Time US - Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, (near US border) Mountain Time - Baja California Sur, Nayarit, Sinaloa Mountain Time - Chihuahua (away from US border) Mountain Time US - Chihuahua (near US border) Mountain Standard Time - Sonora Pacific Time US - Baja California Central Time - Bahía de Banderas Malaysia (peninsula) Sabah, Sarawak UTC+2 - Central Africa Time UTC+1 - West Africa Time New Zealand Time Chatham Islands Society Islands Marquesas Islands Gambier Islands Papua New Guinea (most locations) Bougainville Gaza Strip West Bank Portugal (mainland) Madeira Islands Azores Réunion Island, Crozet Islands, Scattered Islands Moscow-01 - Kaliningrad Moscow+00 - Russia (west) Moscow+00 - Crimea Moscow+00 - Caspian Sea Moscow+01 - Samara, Udmurtia Moscow+02 - Urals Moscow+03 - Siberia (west) Moscow+03 - Novosibirsk Moscow+04 - Kemerovo Moscow+04 - Yenisei River Moscow+05 - Lake Baikal Moscow+05 - Zabaykalsky Moscow+06 - Lena River Moscow+06 - Tomponsky, Ust-Maysky Moscow+07 - Amur River Moscow+07 - Sakhalin Island Moscow+07 - Oymyakonsky Moscow+07 - Magadan Moscow+08 - Sakha (east), North Kuril Islands Moscow+09 - Kamchatka Moscow+09 - Bering Sea Kerguelen, St Paul Island, Amsterdam Island Indochina (most locations) Ukraine (most locations) Ruthenia Zaporozh'ye/Zaporizhia, Lugansk/Luhansk (east) Wake Island Eastern Time Eastern Time - Michigan (most locations) Eastern Time - Kentucky (Louisville area) Eastern Time - Kentucky (Wayne) Eastern Time - Indiana (most locations) Eastern Time - Indiana (Daviess, Dubois, Knox, Martin) Eastern Time - Indiana (Pulaski) Eastern Time - Indiana (Crawford) Eastern Time - Indiana (Pike) Eastern Time - Indiana (Switzerland) Central Time Central Time - Indiana (Perry) Central Time - Indiana (Starke) Central Time - Michigan (Dickinson, Gogebic, Iron, Menominee) Central Time - North Dakota (Oliver) Central Time - North Dakota (Morton except Mandan area) Central Time - North Dakota (Mercer) Mountain Time Mountain Time - Idaho (south), Oregon (east) Mountain Standard Time - Arizona (except Navajo) Pacific Time Alaska Time Alaska Time - Alaska Panhandle Alaska Time - Alaska Panhandle (southeast) Alaska Time - Annette Island Alaska Time - Alaska Panhandle (neck) Alaska Time - Alaska (west) Aleutian Islands Hawaii Time Uzbekistan (west) Uzbekistan (east) Vietnam (south)