From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Paul Eggert Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: The Emacs Calculator and calendar Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2012 16:10:36 -0700 Message-ID: <5074AEEC.1010900@cs.ucla.edu> References: <87y5jk3f7d.fsf@gmail.com> <87626md8aj.fsf@Rainer.invalid> <83vcem6592.fsf@gnu.org> <5071E6E7.7080906@cs.ucla.edu> <50732AD7.8000003@cs.ucla.edu> <5073C3F6.40606@cs.ucla.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1349824249 26631 80.91.229.3 (9 Oct 2012 23:10:49 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2012 23:10:49 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: rms@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Oct 10 01:10:56 2012 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1TLiww-0008QU-UX for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 10 Oct 2012 01:10:55 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:57484 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TLiwq-0000f8-CC for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 09 Oct 2012 19:10:48 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:39476) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TLiwn-0000f3-Nm for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 09 Oct 2012 19:10:46 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TLiwm-0001BS-5u for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 09 Oct 2012 19:10:45 -0400 Original-Received: from smtp.cs.ucla.edu ([131.179.128.62]:47498) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TLiwl-0001Ah-T6; Tue, 09 Oct 2012 19:10:44 -0400 Original-Received: from localhost (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by smtp.cs.ucla.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7B47AA60005; Tue, 9 Oct 2012 16:10:42 -0700 (PDT) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at smtp.cs.ucla.edu Original-Received: from smtp.cs.ucla.edu ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.cs.ucla.edu [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id GI59bMHjezId; Tue, 9 Oct 2012 16:10:41 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: from penguin.cs.ucla.edu (Penguin.CS.UCLA.EDU [131.179.64.200]) by smtp.cs.ucla.edu (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id B4090A60004; Tue, 9 Oct 2012 16:10:41 -0700 (PDT) User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:15.0) Gecko/20120911 Thunderbird/15.0.1 In-Reply-To: X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) X-Received-From: 131.179.128.62 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:154265 Archived-At: On 10/09/2012 08:47 AM, Richard Stallman wrote: > a crucial question for this purpose: defining a "Hungarian" calendar > domain that might be useful for people today who are thinking about > dates in the Hungarian past. Good point. So, as I understand it, the case you're worried about is a source where the author's practice is something like the following: This book uses the Gregorian calendar for dates from 14 September 1752 onwards, and the Julian calendar starting on January 1 for dates before that. The calendar is not otherwise indicated. No doubt some books exist like that, but in my experience the following sorts of rules are more typical: "For the purposes of this book, all dates are given using the modern Gregorian calendar unless specifically followed by the O.S. designation." -- David Marley, Wars of the Americas, ABC-CLIO (2008), page xiii. "I distinguish old style (o.s.) from "new style" (n.s.) dates in chapter 1, but in later chapters the reader should understand that all dates are modern or new style, unless otherwise indicated." -- Allan Everett Marble, Surgeons, Smallpox, and the Poor (McGill-Queens, 1997), p. 11 "In this book Continental dates in the period 1582-1752 can generally be assumed to be given according to the Gregorian system, and British (and American) dates of the period according to the Julian system, but with the year in all cases deemed to begin on 1 January, not 25 March. However, when dates are taken from a great variety of sources, as they are in a book like this, it is not always possible to be sure which system has been used" -- Ian Chilvers, The Oxford Dictionary of Art (OUP, 2004), p. vii. That is, when there is possible confusion about the calendar, there is a book-specific set of rules that typically cannot easily be reduced to the Unix cal rule, or to a rule that is more-easily programmable than what Emacs calendar already does.