For a long time, we used the tzconfig command to select a system's timezone. We then dropped that interface in favor of debconf-based configuration. While this was not nearly as convenient or easy to use, it offered the benefit of internationalized templates, and today the tzdata templates are translated into 30 languages.
Currently we are sticking strictly to upstream timezone names, and omitting any aliases or backward compatibility links. This has the positive effect of not cluttering the debconf menus with even more choices, and the negative effect that people cannot find the timezone choices they may be used to, and in many cases users are unaware of which city corresponds to the timezone in which they live, are visiting, or are trying to see the local time for. Users become very passionate about their own particular timezone issues, whether these are functional or purely aesthetic. Upstream tends to care little for the aesthetic issues, for they claim quite correctly that they are not mandating the information we present to the users. One thing we could do is to decouple the tzdata package from the selection mechanism; it could provide a shell-script interface to set the contents of /etc/timezone and /etc/localtime, and then an arbitrary number of config-UI packages could share that interface and let the user choose between a tzconfig-alike, the current debconf scripts, and then something else that corresponds to whatever political statements, spelling styles, or easily-recognizable zone names that people might desire. The downsides would probably be more coordination work and more translation work. Alternately we could just come up with a single new system to force upon everyone, or bandaid-patch tzdata any time anyone complains. Thoughts? -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
