Make tz-link.htm more up-to-date.

* tz-link.htm: Mention xCal and jCal. Mention Microsoft Windows 8.1 support for tz names. CLDR data is available in both XML and JSON form. Update two links (thanks to Oscar van Vlijmen). Fix some formatting glitches, e.g., remove random newlines from abbr elements' title attributes. * NEWS: Document this.
2025-11-22 23:03:39 +00:00 · 2014-01-29 21:24:49 -08:00
parent 8dbbeb507e
commit 36dbd2c201
2 changed files with 59 additions and 31 deletions
--- a/18
+++ b/18
@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 News for the tz database

+
 Unreleased, experimental changes

  Changes affecting near-future time stamps
@ -16,11 +17,25 @@ Unreleased, experimental changes

    The settings for 'make check_web' now default to Ubuntu 13.10.

-  Changes affecting commentary
+  Changes affecting commentary and documentation

    The boundary of the US Pacific time zone is given more accurately.
    (Thanks to Alan Mintz.)

+    Several changes affect tz-link.htm, the main web page.
+
+      Mention xCal (Internet RFC 6321) and jCal.
+
+      Microsoft Windows 8.1 and later support tz database names.
+
+      CLDR data is available in both XML and JSON form.
+
+      Update two links.  (Thanks to Oscar van Vlijmen.)
+
+      Fix some formatting glitches, e.g., remove random newlines from
+      abbr elements' title attributes.
+
+
 Release 2013i - 2013-12-17 07:25:23 -0800

  Changes affecting near-future time stamps:
@ -50,6 +65,7 @@ Release 2013i - 2013-12-17 07:25:23 -0800

    tz-link.htm now mentions Noda Time.  (Thanks to Matt Johnson.)

+
 Release 2013h - 2013-10-25 15:32:32 -0700

  Changes affecting current and future time stamps:
--- a/tz-link.htm
+++ b/tz-link.htm
@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 <meta http-equiv="Content-type" content='text/html; charset="US-ASCII"'>
 <meta name="DC.Creator" content="Eggert, Paul">
 <meta name="DC.Contributor" content="Olson, Arthur David">
-<meta name="DC.Date" content="2014-01-17">
+<meta name="DC.Date" content="2014-01-30">
 <meta name="DC.Description"
 content="Sources of information about time zones and daylight saving time">
 <meta name="DC.Identifier"
@ -93,8 +93,10 @@ the code is in the file <code>tzcode<var>C</var>.tar.gz</code>,
 where <code><var>C</var></code> is the code's version;
 similarly, the data are in <code>tzdata<var>D</var>.tar.gz</code>,
 where <code><var>D</var></code> is the data's version.
-Each version is a four-digit year followed by lower-case letters
-(a through z, then za through zz, then zza through zzz, and so on).
+Since 1996, each version has been a four-digit year followed by
+lower-case letter (<samp>a</samp> through <samp>z</samp>,
+then <samp>za</samp> through <samp>zz</samp>, then <samp>zza</samp>
+through <samp>zzz</samp>, and so on).
 Convenience links to
 the <a href="ftp://ftp.iana.org/tz/tzcode-latest.tar.gz">latest
 code</a> and
@ -137,8 +139,8 @@ and browse the <a
 href="http://mm.icann.org/pipermail/tz/">archive of old
 messages</a>. For further information about updates, please see
 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6557">Procedures for
-Maintaining the Time Zone Database</a> (Internet <abbr title="Request
-For Comments">RFC</abbr> 6557).</p>
+Maintaining the Time Zone Database</a> (Internet <abbr
+title="Request For Comments">RFC</abbr> 6557).</p>
 <p>
 The Web has several other sources for time zone and daylight saving time data.
 Here are some links that may be of interest.
@ -149,7 +151,8 @@ Here are some links that may be of interest.
 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tz_database">tz database</a> is
 an encyclopedic summary.</li>
 <li><a href="http://www.cstdbill.com/tzdb/tz-how-to.html">How to Read the
-tz Database Source Files</a> explains the tz database format.</li>
+tz Database Source Files</a> explains the <code><abbr>tz</abbr></code>
+database format.</li>
 <li><a
 href="http://blog.jonudell.net/2009/10/23/a-literary-appreciation-of-the-olsonzoneinfotz-database/">A
 literary appreciation of the Olson/Zoneinfo/tz database</a> comments on the
@ -169,7 +172,7 @@ Time in 1000 Places</a> uses descriptions of the values.</li>
 <li><a href="http://www.timezoneconverter.com/cgi-bin/tzc.tzc">Time Zone
 Converter</a>
 uses a pulldown menu.</li>
-<li><a href="http://home.telfort.nl/~t876506/TZworld.html">Complete
+<li><a href="http://home.kpn.nl/vanadovv/time/TZworld.html">Complete
 timezone information for all countries</a> displays tables of DST rules.
 <li><a href="http://timeanddate.com/worldclock/">The World Clock &ndash;
 Time Zones</a> lets you sort zone names and convert times.</li>
@ -184,15 +187,23 @@ also contains data about time zone boundaries; it supports queries via place
 names and shows location maps.</li>
 <li><a href="http://simpletimerclocks.mozdev.org/">Simple Timer + Clocks</a>
 is a Firefox add-on which uses a timezone data file generated from the
-tz data files.</li>
+<code><abbr>tz</abbr></code> data files.</li>
 </ul>
 <h2>Other time zone database formats</h2>
 <ul>
 <li>The <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5545">
 Internet Calendaring and Scheduling Core Object Specification
-(iCalendar)</a>, Internet <abbr>RFC</abbr> 5445
+(iCalendar)</a> (Internet <abbr>RFC</abbr> 5445)
 covers time zone
 data; see its VTIMEZONE calendar component.
+The iCalendar format requires specialized parsers and generators; a
+variant <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6321">xCal</a>
+(Internet RFC 6321) uses
+<a href="http://www.w3.org/XML/"><abbr
+title="Extensible Markup Language">XML</abbr></a> format, and a draft variant
+<a href="http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-jcardcal-jcal/">jCal</a>
+uses <a href="http://www.json.org/"><abbr
+title="JavaScript Object Notation">JSON</abbr></a> format.
 <a href="http://calconnect.org/">CalConnect, The Calendaring and Scheduling
 Consortium</a> is promoting further work in this area. <a
 href="http://calconnect.org/publications/icalendartimezoneproblemsandrecommendationsv1.0.pdf">iCalendar
@ -249,6 +260,8 @@ Unicode (<abbr>ICU</abbr>)</a> contains C/C++ and <a
 href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_%28programming_language%29">Java</a>
 libraries for internationalization that
 has a compiler from <code><abbr>tz</abbr></code> source
+and from <abbr title="Common Locale Data Repository">CLDR</abbr> data
+(mentioned below)
 into an <abbr>ICU</abbr>-specific format.
 <abbr>ICU</abbr> is freely available under a
 <abbr>BSD</abbr>-style license.</li>
@ -282,8 +295,7 @@ Library</a> is
 a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smalltalk">Smalltalk</a> class
 library that compiles <code><abbr>tz</abbr></code> source into a time
 zone repository whose format
-is either proprietary or an <a href="http://www.w3.org/XML/"><abbr
-title="Extensible Markup Language">XML</abbr></a>-encoded
+is either proprietary or an <abbr>XML</abbr>-encoded
 representation.</li>
 <li>Starting with version 8.5, <a href="http://tcl.tk/">Tcl</a>
 contains a developer-oriented parser that compiles <code><abbr>tz</abbr></code>
@ -317,8 +329,7 @@ It is freely available under the same terms as Perl
 public-domain <a href="https://github.com/dbaron/tz.js">tz.js</a>
 library contains a Python tool that
 converts <code><abbr>tz</abbr></code> binary data into
-<a href="http://www.json.org/"><abbr title="JavaScript Object
-Notation">JSON</abbr></a>-format data suitable for use
+<abbr>JSON</abbr>-format data suitable for use
 in its JavaScript library for time zone conversion. Dates before 1970
 are not supported.</li>
 </ul>
@ -388,12 +399,13 @@ Schedules Information Manual</a> of the
 <a href="http://iata.org/index.htm">International Air Transport
 Association</a>
 gives current time zone rules for airports served by commercial aviation.</li>
-<li>Some Microsoft Windows versions contain time zone information in
-an undocumented format, with <abbr>ID</abbr>s that can be mapped to
+<li>Although Microsoft Windows 8.1 and later supports
+the <code><abbr>tz</abbr></code> database names directly, many of its
+applications use time zone information in an undocumented format
+from earlier releases, with <abbr>ID</abbr>s that can be mapped to
 <code><abbr>TZ</abbr></code> values using the <a
 href="http://unicode.org/cldr/charts/supplemental/zone_tzid.html">Zone
-&rarr; Tzid table</a> maintained by the <abbr
-title="Common Locale Data Repository">CLDR</abbr> data mentioned
+&rarr; Tzid table</a> in the <abbr>CLDR</abbr> data mentioned
 below.</li>
 </ul>
 <h2>Maps</h2>
@ -430,7 +442,7 @@ geospatial query operators to shapefiles' data.</li>
 <li><a href="http://statoids.com/statoids.html">Administrative
 Divisions of Countries ("Statoids")</a> contains lists of
 political subdivision data related to time zones.</li>
-<li><a href="http://home.telfort.nl/~t876506/Multizones.html">Time
+<li><a href="http://home.kpn.nl/vanadovv/time/Multizones.html">Time
 zone boundaries for multizone countries</a> summarizes legal
 boundaries between time zones within countries.</li>
 <li>Manifold.net's <a
@ -626,6 +638,16 @@ contentious issue.</li>
 </ul>
 <h2>Time notation</h2>
 <ul>
+<li>The <a href="http://unicode.org/cldr/">Unicode Common Locale Data
+Repository (<abbr>CLDR</abbr>) Project</a> has localizations for time
+zone names, abbreviations, identifiers, and formats. For example, it
+contains French translations for "Eastern European Summer Time",
+"<abbr title="Eastern European Summer Time">EEST</abbr>", and
+"Bucharest". Its
+<a href="http://unicode.org/cldr/charts/by_type/index.html">by-type
+charts</a> show these values for many locales. Data are available in
+both <abbr title="Locale Data Markup Language">LDML</abbr>
+(an <abbr>XML</abbr> format) and <abbr>JSON</abbr>.
 <li>
 <a href="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-time.html">A summary of
 the international standard date and time notation</a> is a good
@ -659,16 +681,6 @@ formats.</li>
 <a href="http://exit109.com/~ghealton/y2k/yrexamples.html">The
 Best of Dates, the Worst of Dates</a> covers many problems encountered
 by software developers when handling dates and time stamps.</li>
-<li>The <a
-href="http://unicode.org/cldr/">Unicode Common Locale Data Repository
-(<abbr>CLDR</abbr>) Project</a> has localizations for time zone names,
-abbreviations, identifiers, and formats. For example, it contains
-French translations for "Eastern European Summer Time", "<abbr
-title="Eastern European Summer Time">EEST</abbr>", and
-"Bucharest". <a
-href="http://unicode.org/cldr/charts/by_type/index.html">By-Type
-Chart</a> shows these values for many locales.
-<abbr>ICU</abbr> contains a mechanism for using this data.</li>
 <li>Alphabetic time zone abbreviations should not be used as unique
 identifiers for <abbr>UTC</abbr> offsets as they are ambiguous in
 practice. For example, "<abbr>EST</abbr>" denotes 5 hours behind
@ -686,8 +698,8 @@ maintainers.</li>
 <code><abbr>TZ</abbr></code> environment variable uses the opposite convention.
 For example, one might use <code><abbr>TZ</abbr>="<abbr
 title="Japan Standard Time">JST</abbr>-9"</code> and
-<code><abbr>TZ</abbr>="<abbr title="Hawaii Standard
-Time">HST</abbr>10"</code> for Japan and Hawaii, respectively. If the
+<code><abbr>TZ</abbr>="<abbr title="Hawaii Standard Time">HST</abbr>10"</code>
+for Japan and Hawaii, respectively. If the
 <code><abbr>tz</abbr></code> database is available, it is usually better to use
 settings like <code><abbr>TZ</abbr>="Asia/Tokyo"</code> and
 <code><abbr>TZ</abbr>="Pacific/Honolulu"</code> instead, as this should avoid