icu::timezone but icu::datetime::time_zone

[robertbastian]

Names should be consistent

[sffc]

We decided "Metazone" is one word but "Time Zone" is two words (#2507). This implies that it should be icu::time_zone. But, that is a crate name.

Options:

0. Live with it
1. Change icu_timezone to icu_time_zone and deprecate the crate icu_timezone
2. Change icu::datetime::time_zone to icu::datetime::timezone in module names
3. 2 + change all instances of snake case time_zone to timezone
4. 2 + 3 + change all instances of camel case TimeZone to Timezone

[sffc]

Discuss with:

• @leftmostcat
• @sffc
• @robertbastian

[robertbastian]

It doesn't look like we ever decided that "time zone" is two words, only that "metazone" is one. "timezone" seems to be the prevalent spelling: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=timezone%2C%22time+zone%22&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&case_insensitive=on&corpus=en-2012&smoothing=3

I vote for 4.

[sffc]

CC @markusicu

[sffc]

I maybe prefer option 3 just because TimeZone stylized with that casing is so common. But it means camel and snake don't agree which is unfortunate.

[markusicu]

No strong opinion. Not 4.

[zbraniecki]

My vote is for 3. Primarily because Temporal seems to set on TimeZone.

[Manishearth]

0. Live with it (icu_timezone, icu::timezone, TimeZone)
1. Change icu_timezone to icu_time_zone and deprecate the crate icu_timezone
2. Change icu::datetime::time_zone to icu::datetime::timezone in module names
3. 2 + change all instances of snake case time_zone to timezone
4. 2 + 3 + change all instances of camel case TimeZone to Timezone

Discussion:

• @robertbastian - I don't like option 1 because I don't want to change the crate name. We also decided that Metazone is one word so I don't know why Time zone should be two words. Also the first thing people will see is icu_timezone/icu::timezone, so using time_zone after that look inconsistent.
• @echeran - I favor option 0 because I like the consistency of documentation. Renaming crates has a lot of churn.
• @sffc - To clarify, icu::datetime::time_zone is a module name, not a crate name.
• @zbraniecki - I'd like to do what the English dictionary does for "metazone" versus "time zone". This difference is reflected in Britannica, Microsoft, and Wikipedia. I suggest we follow that. I'd like us to follow JS Temporal, which capitalizes "Z".
• @echeran - I agree with Zibi but I would leave the crate name alone. What I don't like is, across Unicode documentation, we should try to be consistent.
• @sffc - UTS 35 is also internally inconsistent. It has <timeZoneNames> but <timezoneData> (which is "deprecated and no longer used")
• @Manishearth - We have "icu_casemap", "icu_datetime", "icu_displaynames", ... the only one with an underscore is "icu_locid_transform", but even locid could be loc_id. So keeping timezone at the top level is what I would prefer.
• @sffc - I like the convention of path names being single words.
• @robertbastian - (there is "fixed_decimal" though)

Open for votes!

[markusicu]

My vote: option 2 -- change the module name to be consistent with the crate, but keep time_zone variables and TimeZone types

[Manishearth]

I also vote 2

2 > 3 > 0 >> 4 > 1

[robertbastian]

2 > 3 > 4 >> 1,0

[sffc]

Ballots: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cwObpQ_gdCsoZVEDNV7C-7eODxElGIJ3FNdivlbLnNo/edit

Results: Options 0, 1, and 4 have vetoes. Among 2 and 3, option 2 is much more popular. It is also the first choice of 6 of 7 ballots. Therefore, option 2 wins.

Action: find all modules in icu4x that have "time zone" in the name and make sure it is stylized as "timezone".

[sffc]

The winning option 2 is the following style:

• Module and crate names: timezone (flat case)
• Function names, type names: camel or snake case depending on language conventions