bug#71572: [PATCH] seconds-to-string-approximate

[JD Smith <jdtsmith@gmail.com>]

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> On Jun 22, 2024, at 7:42 PM, Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu> wrote:
> 
> On 6/22/24 04:45, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>>> 
>> Paul, any comments to the patch?
> 
> For starters:

Thanks for the comment.

> Why define a new function, instead of adding optional arguments to the existing one?

No real reason; new patch doing so attached.

> Why not look at what mastodon.el does, as the comment in seconds-to-string suggests? For example, mastodon-tl--human-duration lets you specify whatever resolution you want, instead of limiting you to either 0.5 or 1  as in the proposed patch.

I see that mastodon is a package in ELPA, so doesn't satisfy the need in core.  I took a look at this function.  The RESOLUTION mentioned is not equivalent to the HALF argument, it is the minimum resolution in seconds.  So setting it to e.g. 3600 results in truncating to the hour, but changes nothing below the hour.  Setting it to the number of seconds in a year gives something quite similar to magit--age (though I notice the mastodon function truncates, instead of rounds; see, e.g., 2.98y in the table below).

Here's a comparison among:

- the current seconds-to-string
- mastodon-tl--human-duration
- mastodon with a 3600s resolution
- mastodon with 1yr "resolution"
- the new seconds-to-string with option READABLE=t
- new seconds-to-string with abbreviated units and half unit resolution

  Delay (s)      s-to-s            mastodon    mastodon (3600s)    mast (1yr)  s-to-s (rdb)  s-to-s (rdb=abbrev, half)
        0.5    450.00ms               0 sec               0 sec         0 sec     0 seconds  ½s
        1.0       1.03s               1 sec               1 sec         1 sec      1 second  1s
        2.4       2.38s              2 secs              2 secs        2 secs     2 seconds  2½s
        5.5       5.48s              5 secs              5 secs        5 secs     5 seconds  5½s
       12.6      12.59s             12 secs             12 secs       12 secs    13 seconds  12½s
       29.0      28.96s             28 secs             28 secs       28 secs    29 seconds  29s
       66.6      66.62s               1 min               1 min         1 min      1 minute  1m
      153.2       2.55m              2 mins              2 mins        2 mins     3 minutes  2½m
      352.4       5.87m              5 mins              5 mins        5 mins     6 minutes  6m
      810.5      13.51m             13 mins             13 mins       13 mins    14 minutes  13½m
     1864.2      31.07m             31 mins             31 mins       31 mins    31 minutes  31m
     4287.6      71.46m     1 hour, 11 mins              1 hour        1 hour        1 hour  1h
     9861.6       2.74h    2 hours, 44 mins             2 hours       2 hours       3 hours  2½h
    22681.6       6.30h    6 hours, 18 mins             6 hours       6 hours       6 hours  6½h
    52167.8      14.49h   14 hours, 29 mins            14 hours      14 hours      14 hours  14½h
   119985.9       1.39d      1 day, 9 hours      1 day, 9 hours         1 day         1 day  1½d
   275967.5       3.19d     3 days, 4 hours     3 days, 4 hours        3 days        3 days  3d
   634725.2       7.35d              1 week              1 week        1 week        1 week  1w
  1459867.9      16.90d     2 weeks, 2 days     2 weeks, 2 days       2 weeks       2 weeks  2½w
  3357696.2      38.86d     1 month, 1 week     1 month, 1 week       1 month       1 month  1½M
  7722701.2      89.38d   2 months, 4 weeks   2 months, 4 weeks      2 months      3 months  3M
 17762212.9     205.58d   6 months, 3 weeks   6 months, 3 weeks      6 months      7 months  7M
 40853089.6       1.29y    1 year, 3 months    1 year, 3 months        1 year        1 year  1½Y
 93962106.0       2.98y  2 years, 11 months  2 years, 11 months       2 years       3 years  3Y
216112843.8       6.85y  6 years, 10 months  6 years, 10 months       6 years       7 years  7Y
497059540.7      15.75y  15 years, 9 months  15 years, 9 months      15 years      16 years  16Y

The last column is obviously the most compact while still conveying a good amount of information, but the 1yr mastodon and normal READABLE s-to-s are also quite good (effectively equivalent to magit--age) for a quick glance and maintaining ~constant widths.  I do find it awkward to set the RESOLUTION argument to >30 million seconds to achieve this.  It took me a bit to understand what this argument does. 

Code use to produce:

(concat
 (format "%11s  %10s  %18s  %18s  %12s  %12s  %s\n" "Delay (s)" "s-to-s"
         "mastodon" "mastodon (3600s)" "mast (1yr)" "s-to-s (rdb)" "s-to-s (rdb=abbrev, half)")
 (cl-loop for s = 0.45 then (* s 2.3) while (< s (* 365.25 24 3600 22))
          concat (format "%11.1f  %10s  %18s  %18s  %12s  %12s  %s\n" s
                         (seconds-to-string s)
                         (car (mastodon-tl--human-duration s))
                         (car (mastodon-tl--human-duration s 3600))
                         (car (mastodon-tl--human-duration s (* 365.25 24 3600)))
                         (seconds-to-string s t)
                         (seconds-to-string s 'abbrev 'half))))



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--- time-date.el	2024-06-22 21:51:21
+++ time-date_new.el	2024-06-22 21:53:13
@@ -406,10 +406,41 @@
         (list (* 3600 24 400) "d" (* 3600.0 24.0))
         (list nil "y" (* 365.25 24 3600)))
   "Formatting used by the function `seconds-to-string'.")
+
+(defvar seconds-to-string-readable
+  `(("Y" "year"   "years"   ,(round (* 60 60 24 365.2425)))
+    ("M" "month"  "months"  ,(round (* 60 60 24 30.436875)))
+    ("w" "week"   "weeks"   ,(* 60 60 24 7))
+    ("d" "day"    "days"    ,(* 60 60 24))
+    ("h" "hour"   "hours"   ,(* 60 60))
+    ("m" "minute" "minutes" 60)
+    ("s" "second" "seconds" 1))
+  "Formatting used by the function `seconds-to-string' with READABLE set.")
+
 ;;;###autoload
-(defun seconds-to-string (delay)
-  "Convert the time interval in seconds to a short string."
-  (cond ((> 0 delay) (concat "-" (seconds-to-string (- delay))))
+(defun seconds-to-string (delay &optional readable half)
+  "Convert the time interval in seconds to a short string.
+If READABLE is non-nil, convert DELAY into a readable string.  If it is
+the value `abbrev', abbreviate the units.  If HALF is set, round to the
+nearest half unit."
+  (cond ((> 0 delay) (concat "-" (seconds-to-string (- delay) readable half)))
+        (readable
+         (let ((abbrev (eq readable 'abbrev))
+               (stsa seconds-to-string-readable)
+               here cnt)
+           (if (= (round delay (if half 0.5 1.)) 0)
+               (format "0%s" (if abbrev "s" " seconds"))
+             (while (and (setq here (pop stsa)) stsa
+                         (< (/ delay (nth 3 here)) 1)))
+             (setq cnt (round (/ (float delay) (nth 3 here)) (if half 0.5 1.)))
+             (concat
+              (let ((c (if half (/ cnt 2) cnt)))
+                (if (> c 0) (number-to-string c) ""))
+              (if (and half (= (mod cnt 2) 1)) "½" "")
+              (if abbrev "" " ")
+              (cond (abbrev (car here))
+                    ((<= cnt (if half 2 1)) (nth 1 here))
+                    (t (nth 2 here)))))))
         ((= 0 delay) "0s")
         (t (let ((sts seconds-to-string) here)
              (while (and (car (setq here (pop sts)))

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