[LEAPSECS] 2007-12-31 23:59:60 Z (sic)

[Tony Finch]

On Tue, 1 Jan 2008, Steve Allen wrote:

>

> In the case of TZ, there is no single authority other than, as is

> being posited in the Internet discussions of unique nomenclature for

> zones, IANA.


IANA does not keep any timezone registry, and Internet protocols have for
a long time avoided using time zone names (relying instead on explicit
offsets).

Perhaps you are thinking of the Unicode Common Locale Data Repository
project <http://www.unicode.org/cldr/>. They use the Olson TZ names as the
basis of their standard, though augmented with a canonicalization table
for better long-term stability, and with "display names" to conform to
local standards instead of programming convenience.


> What would IANA have done in the case of Venezuela?

> Issue an update and then a week later issue another update?


The CLDR also defers to the Olson TZ database for details of the
definitions of zones, and includes a version number in case separate
systems need to be sure they agree about the timezone rules. In the case
of Venezuela the changes came fast enough to cause only one new tzdata
release.

Tony.
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