I've just been trying to "compile" the 2014g data into my Noda Time data format, and I've run against a couple of problems due to trying to include both the "backward" and "backzone" files. I'd like to just clarify the intention here, from the perspective of direct consumers of the files providing a service to others. It looks (from a brief look) like everything that's in backzone is also in backward, but the reverse is untrue - so it's not like we should *always* use backwards, but optionally *override* some previous definitions using the data in backzone... so things that would otherwise be defined as aliases may gain full zone rules, and aliases themselves may change (e.g. Antarctica/South_Pole). Is that a fair representation? I suspect that for the moment I just won't include backzone as a data source, with the result of the same set of zone IDs as in 2014f, but more of them being aliases. For most Noda Time users that's probably fine, but I may well want to allow users to use backzone data in the future, so I figure it's worth understanding as early as possible... Jon
On 02/09/14 17:22, Jon Skeet wrote:
I suspect that for the moment I just won't include backzone as a data source, with the result of the same set of zone IDs as in 2014f, but more of them being aliases. For most Noda Time users that's probably fine, but I may well want to allow users to use backzone data in the future, so I figure it's worth understanding as early as possible...
This is part of my complaint about this process. Zones in backzone contain additional data to the information in the main database. My own example is Europe/Isle_of_Man and the other UK islands which have different start dates to the merged Europe/London ... The same with other zones, although the level of confidence in the data is variable. Basically anything in backzone needs it's link to the truncated alias removing. -- Lester Caine - G8HFL ----------------------------- Contact - http://lsces.co.uk/wiki/?page=contact L.S.Caine Electronic Services - http://lsces.co.uk EnquirySolve - http://enquirysolve.com/ Model Engineers Digital Workshop - http://medw.co.uk Rainbow Digital Media - http://rainbowdigitalmedia.co.uk
On 09/02/2014 09:22 AM, Jon Skeet wrote:
It looks (from a brief look) like everything that's in backzone is also in backward
No, there are 41 names in 'backzone' but not in 'backward'. Africa/Bamako is one example. In 2014g every name in 'backzone' is also in some other file (e.g., in 'europe') so you won't get any new names by adding 'backzone'. This may not be true in future releases, though.
things that would otherwise be defined as aliases may gain full zone rules, and aliases themselves may change
Yes. The comment at the start of 'backzone' attempts to explain this situation; see the part where it says "This file is not intended to be compiled standalone". Perhaps that bit should be moved to the start....
I suspect that for the moment I just won't include backzone as a data source
I think that's wise. It's bleeding-edge experimental right now, and I wouldn't rely on its format staying the same in the next release.
participants (3)
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Jon Skeet -
Lester Caine -
Paul Eggert