From: Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu>
To: rms@gnu.org
Cc: jay.p.belanger@gmail.com, Edward Reingold <reingold@iit.edu>,
emacs-devel@gnu.org
Subject: Re: The Emacs Calculator and calendar
Date: Sat, 06 Oct 2012 15:07:05 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <5070AB89.4090900@cs.ucla.edu> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <E1TKWVV-0003Od-M7@fencepost.gnu.org>
On 10/06/2012 08:41 AM, Richard Stallman wrote:
> Nobody used the Gregorian calendar in 1400,
> so displaying dates from that year in Gregorian is an anachronism.
It's OK and common to use an anachronism. It is standard
practice to use modern calendars when talking about old dates.
Almost nobody who writes about ancient history specifies dates in the
calendars that were used at the time. Instead, people typically use a
more-modern calendar, and write things like "Caesar was assassinated
in 44 BC" or "Wu became emperor of all China in 280".
It's true that it's also common practice to use the Julian calendar
when talking about events that occurred before 1752 in British-contolled
territory, and to use the Gregorian calendar for later events in that
territory. But this is a special case, and it does not generalize well
elsewhere.
> Perhaps a calendar program should allow the user to specify changeover
> date, offering convenient options for the main jurisdictions of interest.
Unfortunately there are thousands of jurisdictions, and
there is no systematic database of this stuff that I know of.
Some places switched back and forth several times, and the
switchover dates are not always known. In some locations,
both calendars were used simultaneously, and whether
you used Julian or Gregorian dates depended on what reason
you wanted the dates. (A few places *still* use Julian
for some official purposes.) And things get even more
complicated once one considers all the other calendars that are
or have been in practical use. So I'm afraid this suggestion,
though appealing in principle, is not practical.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2012-10-06 22:07 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 47+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2012-10-05 19:13 The Emacs Calculator and calendar Jay Belanger
2012-10-05 19:24 ` Paul Eggert
2012-10-05 20:51 ` Edward Reingold
2012-10-05 21:14 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2012-10-06 15:41 ` Richard Stallman
2012-10-06 22:07 ` Paul Eggert [this message]
2012-10-07 3:49 ` Richard Stallman
2012-10-07 6:22 ` Paul Eggert
2012-10-07 17:30 ` Richard Stallman
2012-10-07 18:23 ` Paul Eggert
2012-10-10 3:37 ` Richard Stallman
2012-10-07 6:36 ` Eli Zaretskii
2012-10-07 7:50 ` Paul Eggert
2012-10-07 8:45 ` Eli Zaretskii
2012-10-07 13:01 ` Juanma Barranquero
2012-10-07 14:08 ` Eli Zaretskii
2012-10-07 17:30 ` Richard Stallman
2012-10-07 17:57 ` Juanma Barranquero
2012-10-07 21:55 ` Sam Steingold
2012-10-08 13:39 ` Richard Stallman
2012-10-07 8:17 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2012-10-07 7:56 ` Achim Gratz
2012-10-07 8:44 ` Eli Zaretskii
2012-10-07 13:57 ` Stefan Monnier
2012-10-07 20:32 ` Paul Eggert
2012-10-07 21:34 ` Tim Cross
2012-10-08 0:32 ` Stefan Monnier
2012-10-08 6:30 ` Paul Eggert
2012-10-08 7:28 ` Ulrich Mueller
2012-10-08 13:56 ` Stefan Monnier
2012-10-08 14:49 ` Jay Belanger
2012-10-08 8:21 ` James Cloos
2012-10-08 14:59 ` Jay Belanger
2012-10-13 6:02 ` Paul Eggert
2012-10-13 14:05 ` Jay Belanger
2012-10-08 13:39 ` Richard Stallman
2012-10-08 19:34 ` Paul Eggert
2012-10-08 22:39 ` Richard Stallman
2012-10-09 6:28 ` Paul Eggert
2012-10-09 15:47 ` Richard Stallman
2012-10-09 23:10 ` Paul Eggert
2012-10-10 2:22 ` Jay Belanger
2012-10-11 12:09 ` Jason Rumney
2012-10-12 1:52 ` Richard Stallman
2012-10-10 3:37 ` Richard Stallman
2012-10-10 21:42 ` Christoph Herzog
2012-10-05 21:17 ` Edward Reingold
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=5070AB89.4090900@cs.ucla.edu \
--to=eggert@cs.ucla.edu \
--cc=emacs-devel@gnu.org \
--cc=jay.p.belanger@gmail.com \
--cc=reingold@iit.edu \
--cc=rms@gnu.org \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
Code repositories for project(s) associated with this external index
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs/org-mode.git
This is an external index of several public inboxes,
see mirroring instructions on how to clone and mirror
all data and code used by this external index.