[Python-Dev] Stdlib and timezones, again

[R. David Murray]

On Sun, 30 Sep 2012 15:30:04 +0200, Xavier Morel <python-dev at masklinn.net> wrote:
> On 2012-09-30, at 15:15 , Antoine Pitrou wrote:
> 
> > On Sun, 30 Sep 2012 15:10:06 +0200
> > Dirkjan Ochtman <dirkjan at ochtman.nl> wrote:
> >> On Sun, Sep 30, 2012 at 3:03 PM, Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net> wrote:
> >>> Can't we simply include the Olson database in Windows installers?
> >> 
> >> We probably can, but the problem is that it's updated quite often (for
> >> example, in 2011, there were about 14 releases; in 2009, there were
> >> 21). So you'd want to have a mechanism to override the data that is
> >> included in the stdlib.
> > 
> > Probably, but for most purposes I would guess a 2-year old database is
> > still good enough? After all, you don't see many people complaining
> > about the outdated Unicode database that is hard-wired in past Pythons.
> 
> But at worst, an outdated unicode database will be missing data right?
> 
> Doesn't an outdated timezone db have the risk of returning *incorrect* data?

Yes.  And the timezeone database is much more volatile than the unicode
database.  The changes are, after all, driven almost entirely by
politics.

--David