cgd@sibyte.com (Chris G. Demetriou) writes:

> However, similarly, I don't see how birth stones are _in any way_
> related or coupled with the operation of a computer system.

Right. The other example was timezone maintenance. There are functions
in the standard library (and required to be there) that use the
timezone information, and *lots* of programs that use those
functions. Is there any "getbirthstonebydate()" function in libc?
Similarly for airport codes.

My main problems with this stuff are: 1) it takes up space, and 2) it
sounds like at least some of the info is out of date and inaccurate,
so that space is effectively wasted. I'd much rather have a pointer to
correct data, than a diskful of stuff that was likely to provide me
with the wrong answer.

I also think it would make sense to have these things in a
pkgsrc package. That would make it much more likely that someone would
properly maintain it, for those who want the info (since it would
hopefully be getting out to a wider audience).