Re: dired-do-touch

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@elta.co.il>]

> From: Juri Linkov <juri@jurta.org>
> Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 22:15:19 +0300
> >
> > IMHO, we don't _have_ to emulate the `touch' program's date/time
> > format.  The format of the arguments that `touch' accepts is a result
> > of a certain user-interface design that is appropriate for a
> > command-line utility.  Emacs could in principle present an entirely
> > different UI, since it is not a command-line app.  We just need to
> > support the same _functionality_, but not necessarily the same
> > _format_.
> 
> While I agree that we don't have to emulate the `touch' program
> format, I think that we ought to add it as one of the possible time
> formats accepted by the `date-to-time' and other Emacs time-parsing
> functions, because this format is very compact which makes it
> convenient for the user to enter.

``Convenient''?  IMHO, you need to be a CS graduate just to understand
it.  Take a look at the Yacc parser summoned for the implementation of
the "--date" option, or at the node in fileutils.info that documents
it.

Even the simpler "-t TIME" option's format is not easy to get right: I
always confuse the traditional (and insane) MMDDhhmm[YY] format with
the newer [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.ss] format and need to consult the docs to
be sure I don't screw up my time stamps.

I wish Emacs had something more human-friendly, perhaps accessible via
mouse clicks on the date/time fields of the Dired display or some such.