On 12/20/24 14:33, Doug Ewell wrote:
I wonder at what point it becomes worthwhile to update the theory page to state (or state more clearly) that:(1) duplicate zones or “aliases” are not created simply to honor additional locations that are historically or culturally prominent, populous, or unique in some way, and (2) tzids do not necessarily represent the only geographic area where the corresponding timekeeping rules are in effect. I note that the word “duplicate” does not currently appear on the theory page, and “alias” appears only in a section related to abbreviations
Thanks, good suggestions. I installed the attached proposed theory.html patch to try to do something along those lines.
From aa8a059d13df25dd54dbe6328a3a3dd72b9a6dec Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Paul Eggert <egg...@cs.ucla.edu> Date: Fri, 27 Dec 2024 16:14:41 -0800 Subject: [PROPOSED] State the duplicate guideline more clearly MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit * theory.html: Give more detail and examples in the guideline “If all the clocks in a timezone have agreed since 1970”. From a suggestion by Doug Ewell in: https://lists.iana.org/hyperkitty/list/tz@iana.org/message/7SEVKETUGFFGVCH6UPIM3HLYCM75JC7K/ --- theory.html | 14 +++++++++++--- 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/theory.html b/theory.html index 50164024..352a3d87 100644 --- a/theory.html +++ b/theory.html @@ -223,10 +223,18 @@ in decreasing order of importance: do not need locations, since local time is not defined there. </li> <li> - If all the clocks in a timezone have agreed since 1970, - do not bother to include more than one timezone - even if some of the clocks disagreed before 1970. + If all clocks in a region have agreed since 1970, + give them just one name even if some of the clocks disagreed before 1970, + or reside in different countries or in notable or faraway locations. Otherwise these tables would become annoyingly large. + For example, do not create a name <code>Indian/Crozet</code> + as a near-duplicate or alias of <code>Asia/Dubai</code> + merely because they are different countries or territories, + or their clocks disagreed before 1970, or the + <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crozet_Islands";>Crozet Islands</a> + are notable in their own right, + or the Crozet Islands are not adjacent to other locations + that use <code>Asia/Dubai</code>. </li> <li> If boundaries between regions are fluid, such as during a war or -- 2.34.1
