David A. Gatwood wrote:
> On Wed, 15 Apr 1998, Greg Evans wrote:
> > why don't we just make it so everyone has to learn GMT and then make it 
> > so that the GMT can be adjusted in 1 minute intervals? <g>
> 
> Well, I'd tend to agree, except that mail programs and such give info like
> GMT bias, and the ability to set zones allows things like ntpd to
> synchronize clocks even across time zones (since the system just asks the
> time server for GMT, and then calculates the local time based on the local
> time zone.
> 
> Here's a novel concept... how about trashing the binary files for
> timezones, and creating a human-readable file containing the time change
> specs so that people can configure them according to their particular
> situation....

[ snip ]

believe it or not, i'm pretty sure that more human-readable files (i.e.
the zoneinfo source) is available out on the 'net.  we only import and
ship the compiled binary versions.

> Alternately, how about just dividing the timezone files according to area,
> and only installing the area that is relevant....  This could be useful
> for other reasons, too, as you could put other region-specific things in
> there, such as language enhancements, keyboard maps, etc.

of course it sounds like a good idea....but then, what do you ship?  who
do you screw over and say "sorry, we ship us pacific by default, but you
poor schmucks in latvia will have to download a separate distribution".
in all reality, too many developers believe that you should be able to
install base, etc, and a kernel and have a fully functional system.  for
this to be the case, you have to ship all the zoneinfo files.

since this discussion really does affect all netbsd ports, if everyone
still wants to pursue it, please move it to a more appropriate list like
current-users or perhaps tech-install (assuming the latter exists).

once again, the real issue here is using a netbsd-based install instead of
a macos-based one.  that will give us the necessary speed increase.  the
amount of space taken up by these files is negligible.

later.

-- 
Colin Wood                                 cwood@ichips.intel.com
Component Design Engineer - MD6                 Intel Corporation
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I speak only on my own behalf, not for my employer.