Bug#602563: tzdata: Tzdata inconsistencies

["Marc F. Clemente" <marc@mclemente.net>]

Package: tzdata
Version: 2010o-1
Severity: minor


I understand that in the United States of America, the preferred way to 
set the time zone is America/Chicago, or America/Los_Angeles.  That's 
all fine, but what about Puerto Rico?  As far as as I know, Puerto Rico 
is still part of the United States, and San Juan is the largest city in 
Puerto Rico.  Where is America/San_Juan?  Maybe the problem is that 
there is a San Juan in almost every Latin American country.  If we 
decide to go with Region/City, then we have to keep it consistent.

Also, since Puerto Rico is in the United States, and is in the Atlantic 
time zone, there should be a US/Atlantic time zone.

Another inconsistency.  Maybe needs a separate bug report.  I see 
America/Aruba and America/Curacao.  Where is America/Bonaire?

Then there is the question of America/Detroit.  I travel to the East 
Coast of the US.  Do I pick America/Detroit or America/New_York?  What's 
the difference and how would I know?  Should I pick America/Detroit only 
when I am in Detroit, or when I am in Michigan, or on the East Coast?

I personally think that the whole Region/City is garbage.  If I live in 
Houson, Texas, why do I have to pick Chicago (1000 miles away)?  After 
all, Denver is only 880 miles away.  How am I even supposed to know that 
Chicago is in the Central time zone and not Eastern?  I like to old 
system where I just pick the time zone US/Central, but I am offended 
that the system now changes it to America/Chicago.

And speaking of America/Denver...  Which Denver is it?  There are eight 
Denvers in the United States.

I know that some of this has been discussed in the past.  And I know the 
reply will have something to do with upstream.  I feel my complaints are 
legitimate; although some more than others.

Thanks,

Marc


-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages tzdata depends on:
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]         1.5.36     Debian configuration 
management sy

tzdata recommends no packages.

tzdata suggests no packages.

-- debconf information:
  tzdata/Zones/Australia:
* tzdata/Zones/US: Central
  tzdata/Zones/Asia:
* tzdata/Zones/Etc: UTC
* tzdata/Zones/SystemV: AST4
  tzdata/Zones/Arctic:
  tzdata/Zones/Pacific:
  tzdata/Zones/Antarctica:
  tzdata/Zones/Europe:
  tzdata/Zones/Africa:
* tzdata/Zones/America: Chicago
* tzdata/Areas: SystemV
  tzdata/Zones/Atlantic:
  tzdata/Zones/Indian: