Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 16:27:02 -0400 From: Garrett Wollman <wollman@lcs.mit.edu> # ZONE-DESCR America New_York United_States Eastern time Good idea, but how about a format like this instead? America/New_York +404251-0740023 US US Eastern time where the columns are: * zone name in tz database * latitude and longitude (in ISO 6709 format) of the zone's main location * country code (in ISO 3166 2-letter format) * an (English) comment describing the zone The latitude and longitude should make it easier to build a graphical display with a dot for each city. The 2-letter code will help you get around the problem of Greenland, Virgin Islands, etc., since these territories all have their own country code. ... so I don't have to scratch my head and ask myself, ``OK, so which territory is Pangnirtung in?'' and similar questions. I think that the 1200 or so people on Baffin Island for whom America/Pangnirtung are appropriate know exactly where it is (:-). But clearly a graphical display will help here too. Unfortunately, this does get into some sticky political situations. Very much so. So far the tz database has escaped the politics that engulfed Windows 95's time zone map (I've heard they've removed the map in recent patch releases). I think we'll be OK as long as the comment describing the area is chosen tactfully enough. How about if I prepare two files, one called `zones' with the above format, and one called `iso3166' that looks like this: AD Andorra AE United Arab Emirates AF Afghanistan ...