Tobias Conradi <tobias.conradi@gmail.com> writes:
we could well end up getting the same argument again,
By that reasoning you could oppose any change.
Indeed, which is exactly the point. Standards are the most useful when they don't change. I don't particularly care if these abbreviations change, but it's the same problem as with the naming of Chinese time zone names: there is a cost to change. Despite it being a horrible idea, I'm sure some software out there has made assumptions about what abbreviations to expect and will break if the abbreviations change. Avoiding unnecessary change in low-level standard software like the tz database is important; it's hard to know what assumptions have been layered on top of it, given how ubiquitous it is. If the abbreviations do change, I agree with Guy: this should be the last time they ever change short of national legislation clearly and unambiguously establishing different abbreviations. -- Russ Allbery (rra@stanford.edu) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>