From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 39559 invoked by alias); 7 Aug 2015 21:49:56 -0000 Mailing-List: contact libc-locales-help@sourceware.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: libc-locales-owner@sourceware.org Received: (qmail 20636 invoked by uid 89); 7 Aug 2015 21:03:56 -0000 Authentication-Results: sourceware.org; auth=none X-Virus-Found: No X-Spam-SWARE-Status: No, score=-0.3 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_50,RP_MATCHES_RCVD,SPF_PASS autolearn=ham version=3.3.2 X-Spam-User: qpsmtpd, 2 recipients X-HELO: zimbra.cs.ucla.edu Message-ID: <55C51D35.8060406@cs.ucla.edu> Date: Fri, 07 Aug 2015 21:49:00 -0000 From: Paul Eggert User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/31.8.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: keld@keldix.com, Marko Myllynen CC: GNU C Library , libc-locales@sourceware.org Subject: Re: Removing locale timezone information References: <556F23C9.3030500@redhat.com> <20150603203430.GC15814@www5.open-std.org> <55715DB2.2010500@redhat.com> <20150806175226.GD28963@www5.open-std.org> In-Reply-To: <20150806175226.GD28963@www5.open-std.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-SW-Source: 2015-q3/txt/msg00089.txt.bz2 keld@keldix.com wrote: > I thing tz data changes are not very frequent No, they're reasonably common: about ten times a year. For example, yester= day=20 North Korea announced they're changing to +0830 on August 15 and we'll gene= rate=20 a new tzdata release before then. We can't reasonably expect glibc release= s=20 that often or so quickly. Quick turnaround is important here. For example, between the time that a n= ew=20 tzdata release is announced, and the time my Ubuntu desktop is automaticall= y=20 updated with the new data, can be a matter of hours. (I'm not doing anythi= ng=20 special; I'm just an ordinary Ubuntu user in this regard.) This is helpful= =20 becausee countries sometimes don't give us much notice. Again, not somethi= ng=20 suited to glibc's schedule. > are Olson tzdata used in GNU interfaces? Yes, e.g., in strftime, localtime_r, and tzset. > Was there a differnce between German > an Swiss timezones? Something with Switzerland not being EU? Yes, German and Swiss daylight-saving rules disagreed in 1980, and B=C3=BCs= ingen=20 (which is a German enclave surrounded by the Swiss canton Shaffhausen) used= =20 Swiss rules. > Both your examples are for countries with two timezones Actually more than two, depending on which version of tzdata you're using.= =20 China has also had Asia/Chongqing, Asia/Harbin, and Asia/Kashgar in past=20 versions. It may well have more than two in the future. > I guess that one of them are the one that the majority will use. True for China and Germany today, but not for the US, Canada, or Russia. A= nd in=20 several other countries (Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, ...) a=20 significant minority of users won't want the majority's preference. We're= =20 talking about a lot of users here, not just a few exceptional cases.