Supplying names for timezones in the data files
For FreeBSD, we needed to support a more user-friendly naming scheme for timezones that gives some indication of which zone is really the correct one to select for a particular country and location. (It is not clear, for example, whether a user in Toronto, Ontario, should choose America/Montreal, America/New_York, or one of the zones actually named for places in Ontario.) We also needed to provide a generally more user-friendly means for selecting the timezones, and as the person who actually did this for FreeBSD I chose to integrate the two problems. In order to solve this problem without creating a maintenance nightmare, I created a structured comment convention in the timezone data files. After each zone definition (or set thereof), there is a comment which indicates which zone name really represents which area. For example, after America/New_York, we see: # ZONE-DESCR America New_York United_States Eastern time where America and New_York identify the zone, America alone also identifies the region (statically mapped to ``North and South America''), United_States is the country, and everything else on the line is the actual description of the zone. A Perl script parses these comments and uses them to build static data structures for the `tzsetup' program, thus converting a maintenance nightmare into a mere maintenance hassle. It would be very nice if there were some mechanism included in the timezone package itself for dealing with this problem. Ideally, zic(8) would simply create a file (/usr/share/zoneinfo/descriptions?) which tzsetup(8) could then dynamically read and interpret. At a minimum, it would be nice to have better indications in the data files themselves of this sort of information, so I don't have to scratch my head and ask myself, ``OK, so which territory is Pangnirtung in?'' and similar questions. Unfortunately, this does get into some sticky political situations. For example, what country do you describe Skopje as being in? It doesn't matter much when it's just in the data file, but if you call it ``Macedonia'' and include it in the listing of ``Europe'', then there's the potential for thousands of screaming Greeks to send you hate mail. Similarly (although more peacefully), a number of people have looked askance at the listing of ``Denmark'', ``France'', ``United Kingdom'' in ``North and South America''; even though those countries have overseas territories here, it does make some people uncomfortable. I decided to let Greenland live at the `country' level, and have thus far punted on the issue of the French and British overseas dependencies. Here are the Perl script and a greatly pared-down diff indicating the changes that I have made to the data files. (The original diff was three times the size, all context.) ------------------------------------ # -*- Perl -*- %reg_ctry = (); %ctry_files = (); %file_descrs = (); while(<>) { next if(!/^\# ZONE-DESCR/); chop; split; shift(@_); shift(@_); # get rid of # ZONE-DESCR # Now $_[0] is region, $_[1] is filename, $_[2] is country, # and @_[3 .. $#_] is the description $reg = $_[0]; $file = $_[1]; $ctry = $_[2]; $descr = join(' ', @_[3 .. $#_]); if($reg_ctry{$reg} =~ /$ctry/) { # do nothing } else { $reg_ctry{$reg} = $ctry . "," . $reg_ctry{$reg}; } $ctry_files{$ctry} .= ",$reg/$file"; $file_descrs{"$reg/$file"} = $descr; } print "/* This file automatically generated. */\n"; print "#include \"tzsetup.h\"\n"; foreach $ctry (sort keys %ctry_files) { print "const char *files_$ctry\[\] = {\n"; $ctry_files{$ctry} =~ s/^,//; foreach $file (sort {$file_descrs{$a} cmp $file_descrs{$b}} split(/,/, $ctry_files{$ctry})) { print "\t\"$file\",\n"; } print "\t0 };\n"; print "const char *menu_$ctry\[\] = {\n"; $i = 0; foreach $file (sort {$file_descrs{$a} cmp $file_descrs{$b}} split(/,/, $ctry_files{$ctry})) { $i++; print "\t\"$i\", \"$file_descrs{$file}\",\n"; } print "\t0, 0 };\n"; print "struct country $ctry = { files_$ctry, menu_$ctry, $i };\n"; } foreach $reg (sort keys %reg_ctry) { print "\nstruct country *menu_$reg\[\] = {\n"; $reg_ctry{$reg} =~ s/,$//; foreach $ctry (sort split(/,/, $reg_ctry{$reg})) { print "\t&$ctry,\n"; } print "\t0 };\n"; print "const char *name_$reg\[\] = {\n"; $i = 0; foreach $ctry (sort split(/,/, $reg_ctry{$reg})) { $i++; $ctry =~ s/_/ /g; print "\t\"$i\", \"$ctry\",\n"; } print "\t0, 0 };\n"; print "struct region $reg = { menu_$reg, name_$reg, $i };\n"; } exit 0; ------------------------------------ +++ africa 1996/07/17 20:07:28 1.5 +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Algiers Algeria All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Luanda Angola All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Porto-Novo Benin All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Gaborone Botswana All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Ouagadougou Burkina_Faso All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Bujumbura Burundi All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Douala Cameroon All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Cape_Verde Cape_Verde All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Bangui Central_African_Republic All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Ndjamena Chad All points +# ZONE-DESCR Indian Comoro Comoros_Islands All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Brazzaville Congo All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Abidjan Ivory_Coast All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Djibouti Djibouti All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Cairo Egypt All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Malabo Equatorial_Guinea All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Asmera Eritrea All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Addis_Ababa Ethiopia All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Libreville Gabon All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Banjul Gambia All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Accra Ghana All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Conakry Guinea All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Bissau Guinea_Bissau All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Nairobi Kenya All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Maseru Lesotho All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Monrovia Liberia All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Tripoli Libya All points +# ZONE-DESCR Indian Antananarivo Madagascar All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Blantyre Malawi All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Bamako Mali All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Noukachott Mauritania All points +# ZONE-DESCR Indian Mauritius Mauritius All points +# ZONE-DESCR Indian Mayotte Mayotte All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Casablanca Morocco All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Maputo Mozambique All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Windhoek Namibia All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Niamey Niger All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Lagos Nigeria All points +# ZONE-DESCR Indian Reunion Reunion_Island All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Kigali Rwanda All points +# ZONE-DESCR Atlantic St_Helena St_Helena All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Sao_Tome Sao_Tome_and_Principe All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Dakar Senegal All points +# ZONE-DESCR Indian Mahe Seychelles All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Freetown Sierra_Leone All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Mogadishu Somalia All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Johannesburg South_Africa All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Khartoum Sudan All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Mbabane Swaziland All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Dar_es_Salaam Tanzania All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Lome Togo All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Tunis Tunisia All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Kampala Uganda All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Kinshasa Zaire Western (Kinshasa) +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Lumumbashi Zaire Eastern (Lumumbashi) +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Lusaka Zambia All points +# ZONE-DESCR Africa Harare Zimbabwe All points +++ asia 1996/07/17 20:07:31 1.7 +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Kabul Afghanistan All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Yerevan Armenia All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Baku Azerbaijan All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Bahrain Bahrain All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Dacca Bangladesh All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Thimbu Bhutan All points +# ZONE-DESCR Indian Chagos British_Indian_Ocean_Terr All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Brunei Brunei All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Rangoon Myanmar All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Phnom_Penh Cambodia All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Shanghai China All points except: +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Harbin China Manchuria +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Chungking China Chungking +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Urumqi China Urumqi +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Kashgar China Eastern Turkestan +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Taipei Taiwan All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Hong_Kong Hong_Kong All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Macao Macao All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Cyprus Cyprus All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Tbilisi Georgia All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Calcutta India All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Jakarta Indonesia Jakarta +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Ujung_Pandang Indonesia Ujung Pandang +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Jayapura Indonesia Jayapura +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Tehran Iran All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Baghdad Iraq All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Jerusalem Israel All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Tokyo Japan All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Amman Jordan All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Alma-Ata Kazakhstan All points except: +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Aktau Kazakhstan Aktau +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Bishkek Kirgizstan All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Seoul South_Korea All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Pyongyang North_Korea All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Kuwait Kuwait All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Vientiane Laos All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Beirut Lebanon All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Kuala_Lumpur Malaysia All points +# ZONE-DESCR Indian Maldives Maldives All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Ulan_Bator Mongolia Central zone +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Katmandu Nepal All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Muscat Oman All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Karachi Pakistan All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Manila Philippines All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Qatar Qatar All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Riyadh Saudi_Arabia All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Singapore Singapore All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Colombo Sri_Lanka All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Damascus Syria All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Dushanbe Tajikistan All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Bangkok Thailand All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Ashkhabad Turkmenistan All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Dubai U_A_E All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Tashkent Uzbekistan All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Saigon Vietnam All points +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Aden Yemen All points +++ australasia 1996/07/17 20:07:36 1.7 +# ZONE-DESCR Australia Darwin Australia_ Northern Territory +# ZONE-DESCR Australia Perth Australia_ Western_Australia +# ZONE-DESCR Australia Brisbane Australia_ Queensland +# ZONE-DESCR Australia Adelaide Australia_ South Australia +# ZONE-DESCR Australia Hobart Australia_ Tasmania +# ZONE-DESCR Australia Melbourne Australia_ Victoria +# ZONE-DESCR Australia Sydney Australia_ New South Wales +# ZONE-DESCR Australia Broken_Hill Australia_ County of Yancowinna, NSW +# ZONE-DESCR Australia Lord_Howe Australia_ Lord Howe Island +# ZONE-DESCR Indian Christmas Australia_ Christmas Island +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Rarotonga Cook_Island All points +# ZONE-DESCR Indian Cocos Cocos_Island All points +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Fiji Fiji All points +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Gambier France Gambier +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Marquesas France Marquesas +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Tahiti France Tahiti +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Guam United_States Guam +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Johnston United_States Johnston Atoll +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Tarawa Kiribati Tarawa +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Enderbury Kiribati Enderbury +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Kiritimati Kiribati Kiritimati +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Truk Fed_States_of_Micronesia Truk state +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Ponape Fed_States_of_Micronesia Pohnpei state +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Yap Fed_States_of_Micronesia Yap state +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Kosrae Fed_States_of_Micronesia Kosrae state +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Majuro Marshall_Islands Majuro +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Kwajalein Marshall_Islands Kwajalein +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Nauru Nauru All points +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Noumea New_Caledonia All points +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Auckland New_Zealand All points except: +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Chatham New_Zealand Chatham +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Niue Niue All points +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Norfolk Norfolk_Islands All points +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Palau Rep_of_Palau Palau +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Port_Moresby Papua_New_Guinea All points +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Pitcairn Pitcairn_Island All points +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Pago_Pago United_States American Samoa +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Apia Western_Samoa All points +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Guadalcanal Solomon_Islands All points except: +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Port_Moresby Solomon_Islands Bougainville +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Fakaofo Tokelau_Island All points +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Tongatapu Tonga All points +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Funafuti Tuvalu All points +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Efate Vanuatu All points +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Wake United_States Wake Island +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Wallis France Wallis and Futuna +++ europe 1996/07/17 20:07:41 1.9 +# ZONE-DESCR Europe London United_Kingdom All points except N. Ireland +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Belfast United_Kingdom Northern Ireland +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Dublin Eire All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Tirane Albania All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Andorra Andorra All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Vienna Austria All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Minsk Belarus All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Brussels Belgium All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Sarajevo Bosnia_and_Herzegovina All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Sofia Bulgaria All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Zagreb Croatia All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Prague Czech_Republic All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Copenhagen Denmark All points except: +# ZONE-DESCR Atlantic Faeroe Denmark Faeroe Islands +# ZONE-DESCR America Scoresbysund Greenland Eastern Greenland +# ZONE-DESCR America Godthab Greenland Western Greenland +# ZONE-DESCR America Thule Greenland Far Western Greenland (Thule) +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Tallinn Estonia All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Helsinki Finland All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Paris France All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Berlin Germany All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Gibraltar United_Kingdom Gibraltar +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Athens Greece All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Budapest Hungary All points +# ZONE-DESCR Atlantic Reykjavik Iceland All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Rome Italy All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Vatican Holy_See All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe San_Marino San_Marino All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Riga Latvia All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Vaduz Liechtenstein All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Vilnius Lithuania All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Luxembourg Luxembourg All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Skopje Fmr_Yugoslav_Rep_Of_Macedonia All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Malta Malta All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Chisinau Moldova All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Monaco Monaco All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Amsterdam Netherlands All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Oslo Norway All points except: +# ZONE-DESCR Atlantic Jan_Mayen Norway Jan Mayen Island +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Warsaw Poland All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Lisbon Portugal All points except: +# ZONE-DESCR Atlantic Azores Portugal Azores +# ZONE-DESCR Atlantic Madeira Portugal Madeira +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Bucharest Romania All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Moscow Russia Moscow zone +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Kuybyshev Russia Kuybyshev zone +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Yekaterinburg Russia Yekaterinburg zone +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Omsk Russia Omsk zone +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Novosibirsk Russia Novosibirsk zone +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Krasnoyarsk Russia Krasnoyarsk zone +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Irkutsk Russia Irkutsk zone +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Yakutsk Russia Yakutsk zone +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Vladivostok Russia Vladivostok zone +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Magadan Russia Magadan zone +# ZONE-DESCR Asia Kamchatka Russia Kamchatka zone +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Bratislava Slovakia All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Ljubljana Slovenia All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Madrid Spain All points except: +# ZONE-DESCR Atlantic Canary Spain Canary Islands +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Stockholm Sweden All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Zurich Switzerland All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Istanbul Turkey All points +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Kiev Ukraine All points except: +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Simferopol Ukraine Crimea +# ZONE-DESCR Europe Belgrade Serbia All points +++ factory 1994/09/14 19:35:02 1.2 +Zone Factory 0 - "Local time zone must be set--use tzsetup" +++ northamerica 1996/07/17 20:07:45 1.8 +# ZONE-DESCR America New_York United_States Eastern time (except IN, KY, MI) +# ZONE-DESCR America Chicago United_States Central time +# ZONE-DESCR America Denver United_States Mountain time (except Arizona) +# ZONE-DESCR America Los_Angeles United_States Pacific time +# ZONE-DESCR America Juneau United_States Alaska: Juneau +# ZONE-DESCR America Yakutat United_States Alaska: Yakutat +# ZONE-DESCR America Anchorage United_States Alaska: Anchorage +# ZONE-DESCR America Nome United_States Alaska: Nome +# ZONE-DESCR America Adak United_States Alaska: Aleutian Islands +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Honolulu United_States Hawaii +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Midway United_States Midway Island +# ZONE-DESCR America Phoenix United_States Arizona (except Navajo Nation) +# ZONE-DESCR America Boise United_States Southern Idaho and Eastern Oregon +# ZONE-DESCR America Indianapolis United_States Indiana: Indianapolis +# sorry, tzsetup needs two-level names +Link America/Indiana/Marengo America/Marengo_IN +# ZONE-DESCR America Marengo_IN United_States Indiana: Crawford County +Link America/Indiana/Knox America/Knox_IN +# ZONE-DESCR America Knox_IN United_States Indiana: Starke County +Link America/Indiana/Vevay America/Vevay_IN +# ZONE-DESCR America Vevay_IN United_States Indiana: Switzerland County +# ZONE-DESCR America Louisville United_States Kentucky: Louisville area +# ZONE-DESCR America Detroit United_States Michigan: Mainland +# ZONE-DESCR America Menominee United_States Michigan: Upper Peninsula +# Navassa +# no information; probably like US/Eastern +# ZONE-DESCR America St_Johns Canada Newfoundland +# ZONE-DESCR America Halifax Canada Atlantic time +# ZONE-DESCR America Glace_Bay Canada Glace Bay, N.S. +# ZONE-DESCR America Montreal Canada Eastern time +# ZONE-DESCR America Thunder_Bay Canada Thunder Bay, Ont. +# ZONE-DESCR America Nipigon Canada Nipigon, Ont. +# ZONE-DESCR America Rainy_River Canada Rainy River, Ont. +# ZONE-DESCR America Winnipeg Canada Manitoba +# ZONE-DESCR America Regina Canada Saskatchewan (except Swift Current) +# ZONE-DESCR America Swift_Current Canada Swift current, Sask. +# ZONE-DESCR America Edmonton Canada Alberta +# ZONE-DESCR America Vancouver Canada British Columbia (except Dawson Creek) +# ZONE-DESCR America Dawson_Creek Canada Dawson creek, B.C. +# XXX - can somebody put territory names to all of these +# ZONE-DESCR America Whitehorse Canada Whitehorse +# ZONE-DESCR America Dawson Canada Dawson +# ZONE-DESCR America Pangnirtung Canada Pangnirtung +# ZONE-DESCR America Iqaluit Canada Iqaluit +# ZONE-DESCR America Rankin_Inlet Canada Rankin_Inlet +# ZONE-DESCR America Yellowknife Canada Yellowknife +# ZONE-DESCR America Inuvik Canada Inuvik +# ZONE-DESCR America Mexico_City Mexico Mexico City +# ZONE-DESCR America Mazatlan Mexico Mazatlan +# ZONE-DESCR America Tijuana Mexico Baja California Norte +# ZONE-DESCR America Ensenada Mexico Ensenada +# ZONE-DESCR America Anguilla Anguilla All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Antigua Antigua All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Nassau Bahamas All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Barbados Barbados All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Belize Belize All points +# ZONE-DESCR Atlantic Bermuda Bermuda All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Cayman Cayman_Islands All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Costa_Rica Costa_Rica All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Havana Cuba All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Dominica Dominica All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Santo_Domingo Dominican_Republic All points +# ZONE-DESCR America El_Salvador El_Salvador All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Grenada Grenada All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Guadeloupe Guadeloupe All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Guatemala Guatemala All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Port-au-Prince Haiti All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Tegucigalpa Honduras All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Jamaica Jamaica All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Martinique Martinique All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Montserrat Montserrat All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Managua Nicaragua All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Panama Panama All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Puerto_Rico United_States Puerto Rico +# ZONE-DESCR America St_Kitts St_Kitts_and_Nevis All points +# ZONE-DESCR America St_Lucia St_Lucia All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Miquelon France St. Pierre and Miquelon +# ZONE-DESCR America St_Vincent St_Vincent All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Grand_Turk Turks_and_Caicos All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Tortola United_Kingdom British Virgin Islands +# ZONE-DESCR America St_Thomas United_States Virgin Islands +++ southamerica 1996/07/17 20:07:52 1.6 +# ZONE-DESCR America Buenos_Aires Argentina All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Aruba All points +# what to do about overseas terrirories...? +# ZONE-DESCR America La_Paz Bolivia All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Noronha Brazil Fernando De Noronha +# ZONE-DESCR America Sao_Paulo Brazil Eastern zone +# ZONE-DESCR America Manaus Brazil Western zone +# ZONE-DESCR America Porto_Acre Brazil Territory of Acre +# ZONE-DESCR America Santiago Chile All points +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Easter Easter_Island All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Bogota Colombia All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Curacao Curacao All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Guayaquil Ecuador All points except: +# ZONE-DESCR Pacific Galapagos Ecuador Galapagos Islands +# ZONE-DESCR Atlantic Stanley Falkland_Islands All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Cayenne French_Guiana All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Guyana Guyana All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Asuncion Paraguay All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Lima Peru All points +# ZONE-DESCR Atlantic South_Georgia South_Georgia All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Paramaibo Suriname All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Port_of_Spain Trinidad_and_Tobago All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Montevideo Uruguay All points +# ZONE-DESCR America Caracas Venezuela All points ------------------------------------
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 ...
<<On Wed, 17 Jul 1996 22:48:46 -0700, Paul Eggert <eggert@twinsun.com> said:
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
* 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
This seems like an excellent proposal. It includes more information that I currently need or would use, but I wouldn't have to maintain any of it myself. It would not be at all hard to adapt the existing `tzsetup' framework to use this sort of data instead, and in the future we could make it completely dynamic.
[I wrote:] ... 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.
Well, it was a more basic problem for me: all of the other Canadian ``exceptions'' I wrote in full form (i.e., including the name of the province), since that information was available from the comments in the files. But, for those zones in the territories, no information was provided to allow me to associate the location with a territory name, and the list of Canadian zones looks rather odd when some places are listed with province names, and some are not. Now, granted, any Canadian would probably know where these other zones are located (at least to the extent of determining that they were not relevant), but my aesthetic judgment is offended by not having all of the ``exceptions'' listed with parallel descriptions.
How about if I prepare two files, one called `zones' with the above format, and one called `iso3166' that looks like this:
AD Andorra
I can deal with this. Indeed, I suspect you don't have to create the `iso3166' file at all, as I know there are a number of copies of it floating about. (It really ought to be installed in /usr/share/misc; it's a lot more useful than `flowers' or `birthtoken' or `zipcodes'.) -GAWollman PS: The person quoted below almost certainly knows where Pangnirtung is, and has probably spent some amount of time there. :-) -- Garrett A. Wollman | O Siem / We are all family / O Siem / We're all the same wollman@lcs.mit.edu | O Siem / The fires of freedom Opinions not those of| Dance in the burning flame MIT, LCS, ANA, or NSA| - Susan Aglukark and Chad Irschick
participants (2)
-
Garrett Wollman -
Paul Eggert