This change stemmed from a long discussion on the tz mailing list about what country the Jerusalem zone entry is in. The idea of this change is to deemphasize the role of countries in the tz database, to lessen the amount of controversy in the future. Due to backward compatibility concerns this change does not eliminate the role of countries entirely. With one minor exception this change does not alter any code or data, just comments. * Theory, zone.tab: Deemphasize the role of countries in choosing location names, as they tend to introduce political conflict during maintenance, and country information isn't needed for typical uses of the database. * Theory: Say that names should differ in more than just case, and why; and explain why 'backward' means old names will continue to work. (thanks to Norbert Lindenberg for spotting these issues). Update citation date and URL. * iso3166.tab: Mention latest maintenance update. Update citation URL. Add missing comma for BQ. Be more consistent about abbreviating Sint like Saint. Mention SX "Dutch part" for consistency with MF "French part". * iso3166.tab, zone.tab: Add legal/territorial disclaimer. * zone.tab: Say that country/zone overlaps can occur in both directions, and that column 2 need not lie within column 1. (Asia/Jerusalem): Change the coordinates from a sloppy value, taken from an old astrology book, to a more-precise value, the site of city hall. The sloppy value sparked some controversy and the hope is that the more-precise value will be a bit less controversial. --- Theory | 27 ++++++++++++++------------- iso3166.tab | 21 ++++++++++----------- zone.tab | 17 ++++++++++++----- 3 files changed, 36 insertions(+), 29 deletions(-) diff --git a/Theory b/Theory index b00a492..751b12d 100644 --- a/Theory +++ b/Theory @@ -264,12 +264,12 @@ in decreasing order of importance: TZ strings. A file name component must not exceed 14 characters or start with `-'. E.g., prefer `Brunei' to `Bandar_Seri_Begawan'. - Include at least one location per time zone rule set per country. - One such location is enough. Use ISO 3166 (see the file - iso3166.tab) to help decide whether something is a country. - However, uninhabited ISO 3166 regions like Bouvet Island + Do not use names that differ only in case. Although the reference + implementation is case-sensitive, some other implementations + are not, and they would mishandle names differing only in case. + Uninhabited regions like the North Pole and Bouvet Island do not need locations, since local time is not defined there. - If all the clocks in a country's region have agreed since 1970, + If all the clocks in a region have agreed since 1970, don't bother to include more than one location even if subregions' clocks disagreed before 1970. Otherwise these tables would become annoyingly large. @@ -283,7 +283,7 @@ in decreasing order of importance: Use mainstream English spelling, e.g. prefer `Rome' to `Roma', and prefer `Athens' to the true name (which uses Greek letters). The POSIX file name restrictions encourage this rule. - Use the most populous among locations in a country's time zone, + Use the most populous among locations in a zone, e.g. prefer `Shanghai' to `Beijing'. Among locations with similar populations, pick the best-known location, e.g. prefer `Rome' to `Milan'. @@ -302,10 +302,11 @@ in decreasing order of importance: Milan's population has grown to be somewhat greater than Rome's. If a name is changed, put its old spelling in the `backward' file. + This means old spellings will continue to work. The file `zone.tab' lists the geographical locations used to name time zone rule files. It is intended to be an exhaustive list -of canonical names for geographic regions. +of names for geographic regions as described above. Older versions of this package used a different naming scheme, and these older names are still supported. @@ -359,14 +360,13 @@ in decreasing order of importance: If this is not available or is a phrase mentioning the country (e.g. ``Cape Verde Time''), then: - When a country has a single or principal time zone region, + When a country is identified with a single or principal zone, append `T' to the country's ISO code, e.g. `CVT' for Cape Verde Time. For summer time append `ST'; for double summer time append `DST'; etc. - When a country has multiple time zones, take the first three - letters of an English place name identifying each zone - and then append `T', `ST', etc. as before; - e.g. `VLAST' for VLAdivostok Summer Time. + Otherwise, take the first three letters of an English place + name identifying each zone and append 'T', 'ST', etc. + as before; e.g. 'VLAST' for VLAdivostok Summer Time. Use UTC (with time zone abbreviation "zzz") for locations while uninhabited. The "zzz" mnemonic is that these locations are, @@ -587,7 +587,8 @@ Sources: Michael Allison and Robert Schmunk, "Technical Notes on Mars Solar Time as Adopted by the Mars24 Sunclock" -<http://www.giss.nasa.gov/tools/mars24/help/notes.html> (2004-07-30). +<http://www.giss.nasa.gov/tools/mars24/help/notes.html> (2012-08-08). Jia-Rui Chong, "Workdays Fit for a Martian", Los Angeles Times +<http://articles.latimes.com/2004/jan/14/science/sci-marstime14> (2004-01-14), pp A1, A20-A21. diff --git a/iso3166.tab b/iso3166.tab index b952ca1..c184a81 100644 --- a/iso3166.tab +++ b/iso3166.tab @@ -1,16 +1,14 @@ -# <pre> +# ISO 3166 alpha-2 country codes +# # This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of # 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson. -# ISO 3166 alpha-2 country codes # -# From Paul Eggert (2006-09-27): +# From Paul Eggert (2013-05-27): # # This file contains a table with the following columns: # 1. ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code, current as of -# ISO 3166-1 Newsletter VI-1 (2007-09-21). See: -# <a href="http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/index.html"> -# ISO 3166 Maintenance agency (ISO 3166/MA) -# </a>. +# ISO 3166-1 Newsletter VI-15 (2013-05-10). See: Updates on ISO 3166 +# http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards/country_codes/updates_on_iso_3166.htm # 2. The usual English name for the country, # chosen so that alphabetic sorting of subsets produces helpful lists. # This is not the same as the English name in the ISO 3166 tables. @@ -20,8 +18,9 @@ # # Lines beginning with `#' are comments. # -# From Arthur David Olson (2011-08-17): -# Resynchronized today with the ISO 3166 site (adding SS for South Sudan). +# This table is intended as an aid for users, to help them select time +# zone data appropriate for their practical needs. It is not intended +# to take or endorse any position on legal or territorial claims. # #country- #code country name @@ -54,7 +53,7 @@ BL St Barthelemy BM Bermuda BN Brunei BO Bolivia -BQ Bonaire Sint Eustatius & Saba +BQ Bonaire, St Eustatius & Saba BR Brazil BS Bahamas BT Bhutan @@ -235,7 +234,7 @@ SR Suriname SS South Sudan ST Sao Tome & Principe SV El Salvador -SX Sint Maarten +SX St Maarten (Dutch part) SY Syria SZ Swaziland TC Turks & Caicos Is diff --git a/zone.tab b/zone.tab index 6b98520..3ec24a7 100644 --- a/zone.tab +++ b/zone.tab @@ -1,18 +1,21 @@ -# <pre> +# TZ zone descriptions +# # This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of # 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson. # -# TZ zone descriptions -# -# From Paul Eggert (1996-08-05): +# From Paul Eggert (2013-05-27): # # This file contains a table with the following columns: # 1. ISO 3166 2-character country code. See the file `iso3166.tab'. +# This identifies a country that overlaps the zone. The country may +# overlap other zones and the zone may overlap other countries. # 2. Latitude and longitude of the zone's principal location # in ISO 6709 sign-degrees-minutes-seconds format, # either +-DDMM+-DDDMM or +-DDMMSS+-DDDMMSS, # first latitude (+ is north), then longitude (+ is east). +# This location need not lie within the column-1 country. # 3. Zone name used in value of TZ environment variable. +# Please see the 'Theory' file for how zone names are chosen. # 4. Comments; present if and only if the country has multiple rows. # # Columns are separated by a single tab. @@ -22,6 +25,10 @@ # # Lines beginning with `#' are comments. # +# This table is intended as an aid for users, to help them select time +# zone data appropriate for their practical needs. It is not intended +# to take or endorse any position on legal or territorial claims. +# #country- #code coordinates TZ comments AD +4230+00131 Europe/Andorra @@ -216,7 +223,7 @@ ID -0002+10920 Asia/Pontianak west & central Borneo ID -0507+11924 Asia/Makassar east & south Borneo, Sulawesi (Celebes), Bali, Nusa Tengarra, west Timor ID -0232+14042 Asia/Jayapura west New Guinea (Irian Jaya) & Malukus (Moluccas) IE +5320-00615 Europe/Dublin -IL +3146+03514 Asia/Jerusalem +IL +314650+0351326 Asia/Jerusalem IM +5409-00428 Europe/Isle_of_Man IN +2232+08822 Asia/Kolkata IO -0720+07225 Indian/Chagos -- 1.8.1.2