Remove file_start_date and file_end_date fields?

[mheadd]

Since file_start_date and file_end_date contain meta information about the file, should they be moved to a separate file? Should they be dropped from the proposed spec?

[tkompare]

I'm not using these fields in Chicago. It all depends on how you want to do file versioning. I prefer versioning in Git or Subversion.

[mheadd]

The original thinking on this is that they would be used in a way similar to the feed_start_date and feed_end_data info in the GTFS spec.

https://developers.google.com/transit/gtfs/reference#feed_info_fields

@tomschenkjr pointed out that since this is meta information about the data set itself, it might be more appropriate to include it in a different file. That is how it is handled in the GTFS spec.

I think we should keep things simple, though, and if they don't add value it might just make sense to drop them. For the Philly data, I'm just using the start and end date that the Department of Public Health uses for flu shot availability. Not sure this adds a whole lot of value.