From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Juanma Barranquero Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: The Emacs Calculator and calendar Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2012 15:01:09 +0200 Message-ID: References: <87y5jk3f7d.fsf@gmail.com> <5070AB89.4090900@cs.ucla.edu> <831uha7pq9.fsf@gnu.org> <50713449.3010306@cs.ucla.edu> <83txu6656t.fsf@gnu.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1349614921 30874 80.91.229.3 (7 Oct 2012 13:02:01 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2012 13:02:01 +0000 (UTC) Cc: jay.p.belanger@gmail.com, Paul Eggert , reingold@iit.edu, rms@gnu.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Eli Zaretskii Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Oct 07 15:02:06 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 1TKqUe-0003q0-Qe for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 07 Oct 2012 15:02:04 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:41022 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TKqUY-0005d7-Rz for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 07 Oct 2012 09:01:58 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:53717) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TKqUV-0005cl-Ve for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 07 Oct 2012 09:01:56 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TKqUU-0002Ge-UB for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 07 Oct 2012 09:01:55 -0400 Original-Received: from mail-wi0-f177.google.com ([209.85.212.177]:38110) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TKqUR-0002GC-Gd; Sun, 07 Oct 2012 09:01:51 -0400 Original-Received: by mail-wi0-f177.google.com with SMTP id hj13so2126351wib.12 for ; Sun, 07 Oct 2012 06:01:49 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:from:date:message-id:subject:to :cc:content-type; bh=JTCjaMUEVhFfabQNuhjCeexciB0M9DPNiEuLBAI77Sw=; b=gfXzwSJVbBOpA5zW7kNaHY49ANvvh09UdhY5Aopn3zsrCAjluFaG24Ls03zefYiDtT yPck0f+nmFvEyYhWrdZcKaLI/wgyH04yPF2eZboPWMj1z+ybzv7G2WebC3WmJLdApqdI rMgTvJ7O2MEIuLVvg6CEXwz6cqiEtQYZxqao9XlxSRsTUQx8jGzrL19vRwqPktW/DFks DfQSlQAnxMzOWFIAzJ+EXgjHGNDa3T5v/OktM0sa+pI3VuCWmHa6kVKgsbo0bP2we+eQ +f1wJQCtGCDpBbC1iQWx9Yyp453zhzGnaKU9V/WnoLQHdKPljo124zd5ByCnGO+k1Oya I4Dg== Original-Received: by 10.216.5.213 with SMTP id 63mr8313842wel.20.1349614909703; Sun, 07 Oct 2012 06:01:49 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: by 10.223.155.132 with HTTP; Sun, 7 Oct 2012 06:01:09 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <83txu6656t.fsf@gnu.org> X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 209.85.212.177 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:154174 Archived-At: On Sun, Oct 7, 2012 at 10:45 AM, Eli Zaretskii wrote: > Maybe you were talking about that limit, but the discussion clearly > referred to dates up to 1752. Is really "ancient history" a common term to refer to history a couple of centuries back? Also, why 1752? If we're talking about non-English-speaking countries, the Gregorian calendar was adopted by Spain, Portugal, Italy and Poland in 1582. Anyway, count me in Paul's side on this. References to past calendars in "contemporary" style are a deep pit of vagueness and misunderstandings. It's common to see ancient Roman dates as AUC ("ab urbe condita", from the founding of the city), a calendar which the Romans didn't use, or only very occasionally. And we talk of year 10 or 20 or 100 AC (Julian or Gregorian) but no one at the time would have understood that, It's a system devised in the 6th century and used mainly from 9th on. It makes a bit more sense to use Julian to refer to post-medieval dates, but even in this case, conversion is not automatic unless you specify the place. If you're reading a Russian book using the Julian calendar, it's simpler to know that there is a 13 days difference with the current reckoning that to use a program to convert dates back and forth, don't you think? My 2/86400 of solar day, Juanma