Subject: Re: [Tzdist] addressing issue 18: " removal of timezones?"

From: Daniel Migault <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 12:41:27 +0100

Dear friends and Colleagues,

We are asking the WG whether Issue #18
<http://trac.tools.ietf.org/wg/tzdist/trac/ticket/18> "Removal of Time
Zone" has been addressed by draft-ietf-tzdist-service-03
<http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-tzdist-service-03>. Feel free to
give your opinion by Friday 21, so we can cleanup the open issue and focus
our attention on issues that have not been solved yet.

Current text is:

4.2.3 <http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-tzdist-service-03#section-4.2.3>.
Subsequent Synchronization of All Time Zones

   A secondary service or a client caching all time zone data needs to
   periodically synchronize with a server.  To do so it would issue a
   "list" action with the "changedsince" URI query parameter set to the
   value of the datestamp returned by the last synchronization.  The
   client would again preserve the returned datestamp for subsequent
   use.  Each time zone in the returned list can then be fetched and
   stored locally.

   Publishers should take into account the fact that the "outright"
   deletion of time zone names will cause problems to simple clients and
   so aliasing a deleted time zone identifier to a suitable alternate
   one is preferable.

BR,
Daniel

On Wed, Oct 29, 2014 at 7:04 AM, Tim Parenti <[email-masked]> wrote:

>
> On 28 October 2014 02:43, Lester Caine <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>> Publishers should take into account the fact that the "outright"
>> deletion of time zone names will cause problems to simple clients and so
>> linking to a suitable alternate data set is preferable.
>
>
> Lester, this seems to be the exact same text as your earlier suggestion,
> which it seemed needed to be further clarified based on the consensus from
> our call.
>
> On 27 October 2014 14:56, Paul Eggert <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>> I'd rather omit that SHOULD sentence, since it contradicts common current
>> practice in the world of tz-using clients.
>>
>> It strikes me that any well-written calendaring application should be
>> able to notify users of any change to time zone information, not merely
>> changes due to withdrawn identifiers.  If tzdist is going to make
>> recommendations along these lines, it should issue a general recommendation
>> along those lines, not a specific recommendation about a particular
>> less-likely sort of change.  And it should make it clear that the
>> recommendation applies only to clients where notifying the user is a
>> reasonable thing to do (often it is not).
>>
>
> Paul, you make good points here, which my narrower focus on this issue
> missed.  I agree that if we are to make any such recommendation about how
> clients should handle changes, it should be at a higher level, applicable
> to all changes, but only when such an expectation is reasonable.  So I
> withdraw the final sentence from my recommended text at
> http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/tzdist/current/msg00868.html and
> leave the rest for comment or consensus.
>
> If the group thinks we should work such a client behavior recommendation
> into the text, I can look into where that might fit better.
>
> --
> Tim Parenti
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tzdist mailing list
> [email-masked]
> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/tzdist
>
>

-- 
Daniel Migault
Orange Labs -- Security
+33 6 70 72 69 58

---

From: Lester Caine <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 11:55:42 +0000

On 18/11/14 11:41, Daniel Migault wrote:
> give your opinion by Friday 21, so we can cleanup the open issue and
> focus our attention on issues that have not been solved yet.

I'm happy that the current draft is 'heavy enough' to flag the problem
without dictating anything.

-- 
Lester Caine - G8HFL
-----------------------------
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---

From: Paul Eggert <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 13:10:26 -0800

> without dictating anything.

Likewise; thanks.

---

From: Tim Parenti <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 16:20:07 -0500

>> without dictating anything.

+1

--
Tim Parenti

---

From: Daniel Migault <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 14:20:22 +0100

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

As version seems to have reach WG consensus. I am suggesting we close this
issue.

BR,
Daniel

-- 
Daniel Migault
Orange Labs -- Security
+33 6 70 72 69 58