> On Jul 6, 2024, at 5:09 PM, Paul Eggert wrote: > > On 7/6/24 21:29, JD Smith wrote: >> do we universally avoid unicode in core files? > > Not in comments, but even today it's wise to be cautious about generating user-visible Unicode characters like "½" when there's a simple ASCII substitute like ".5". Plus, why stop with ½? Why not also do ¼ and ¾? > > It might be better to have an optional precision argument, defaulting to 0, specifying the number of digits of precision after the decimal point. Or something like that. Thanks for the feedback. Attached find an updated patch: - HALF is dropped. - PRECISION can now be specified as a whole-number of digits or a float <1.0 (e.g. 0.5) - NEWS and doc entries. Users who want ½ can always use precision=0.5 and edit the string after the fact. Another attached file includes commands to produce and display a simple benchmark, as well as the example output (below). I see about a 10x performance difference between the standard seconds-to-string and the "bells and whistles" readable version. It's still <35µs per delay for me, so formatting thousands of strings at once should be no problem. Happy to take performance improvement ideas. Current example: Delay (s) s2s s2s-r s2s-ra s2s-ra1 s2s-rah s2s-e s2s-ea s2s-ea1 s2s-ea3 s2s-eah 0.000 0s 0 seconds 0s 0s 0s 0 seconds 0s 0s 0s 0s 0.450 450.00ms 0 seconds 0s 0.4s 0.5s 0 seconds 0s 0.4s 0.450s 0.5s 1.035 1.03s 1 second 1s 1s 1s 1 second 1s 1s 1.035s 1s 2.380 2.38s 2 seconds 2s 2.4s 2.5s 2 seconds 2s 2.4s 2.380s 2.5s 5.475 5.48s 5 seconds 5s 5.5s 5.5s 5 seconds 5s 5.5s 5.475s 5.5s 12.593 12.59s 13 seconds 13s 12.6s 12.5s 13 seconds 13s 12.6s 12.593s 12.5s 28.964 28.96s 29 seconds 29s 29s 29s 29 seconds 29s 29s 28.964s 29s 66.616 66.62s 1 minute 1m 1.1m 1m 1 minute 7 seconds 1m 7s 1m 6.6s 1m 6.616s 1m 6.5s 153.217 2.55m 3 minutes 3m 2.6m 2.5m 2 minutes 33 seconds 2m 33s 2m 33.2s 2m 33.217s 2m 33s 352.399 5.87m 6 minutes 6m 5.9m 6m 5 minutes 52 seconds 5m 52s 5m 52.4s 5m 52.399s 5m 52.5s 810.519 13.51m 14 minutes 14m 13.5m 13.5m 13 minutes 31 seconds 13m 31s 13m 30.5s 13m 30.519s 13m 30.5s 1864.193 31.07m 31 minutes 31m 31.1m 31m 31 minutes 4 seconds 31m 4s 31m 4.2s 31m 4.193s 31m 4s 4287.644 71.46m 1 hour 1h 1.2h 1h 1 hour 11 minutes 1h 11m 1h 11.5m 1h 11.461m 1h 11.5m 9861.581 2.74h 3 hours 3h 2.7h 2.5h 2 hours 44 minutes 2h 44m 2h 44.4m 2h 44.360m 2h 44.5m 22681.636 6.30h 6 hours 6h 6.3h 6.5h 6 hours 18 minutes 6h 18m 6h 18m 6h 18.027m 6h 18m 52167.763 14.49h 14 hours 14h 14.5h 14.5h 14 hours 29 minutes 14h 29m 14h 29.5m 14h 29.463m 14h 29.5m 119985.856 1.39d 1 day 1d 1.4d 1.5d 1 day 9 hours 1d 9h 1d 9.3h 1d 9.329h 1d 9.5h 275967.469 3.19d 3 days 3d 3.2d 3d 3 days 5 hours 3d 5h 3d 4.7h 3d 4.658h 3d 4.5h 634725.178 7.35d 1 week 1w 1w 1w 1 week 1w 1w 0.3d 1w 0.346d 1w 0.5d 1459867.909 16.90d 2 weeks 2w 2.4w 2.5w 2 weeks 3 days 2w 3d 2w 2.9d 2w 2.897d 2w 3d 3357696.192 38.86d 1 month 1M 1.3M 1.5M 1 month 1 week 1M 1w 1M 1.2w 1M 1.204w 1M 1w 7722701.241 89.38d 3 months 3M 2.9M 3M 2 months 4 weeks 2M 4w 2M 4.1w 2M 4.073w 2M 4w 17762212.854 205.58d 7 months 7M 6.8M 7M 6 months 3 weeks 6M 3w 6M 3.3w 6M 3.280w 6M 3.5w 40853089.565 1.29y 1 year 1Y 1.3Y 1.5Y 1 year 4 months 1Y 4M 1Y 3.5M 1Y 3.535M 1Y 3.5M 93962105.999 2.98y 3 years 3Y 3Y 3Y 2 years 12 months 2Y 12M 2Y 11.7M 2Y 11.730M 2Y 11.5M 216112843.798 6.85y 7 years 7Y 6.8Y 7Y 6 years 10 months 6Y 10M 6Y 10.2M 6Y 10.180M 6Y 10M 497059540.736 15.75y 16 years 16Y 15.8Y 16Y 15 years 9 months 15Y 9M 15Y 9M 15Y 9.014M 15Y 9M 1143236943.694 36.23y 36 years 36Y 36.2Y 36Y 36 years 3 months 36Y 3M 36Y 2.7M 36Y 2.733M 36Y 2.5M