From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: The Emacs Calculator and calendar Date: Sat, 06 Oct 2012 23:49:00 -0400 Message-ID: References: <87y5jk3f7d.fsf@gmail.com> <5070AB89.4090900@cs.ucla.edu> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15 X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1349581749 4263 80.91.229.3 (7 Oct 2012 03:49:09 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2012 03:49:09 +0000 (UTC) Cc: jay.p.belanger@gmail.com, reingold@iit.edu, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Paul Eggert Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Oct 07 05:49:14 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 1TKhra-0002qG-UT for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 07 Oct 2012 05:49:11 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:50439 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TKhrU-0002Ap-BC for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 06 Oct 2012 23:49:04 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:53419) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TKhrS-00029t-7x for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 06 Oct 2012 23:49:03 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TKhrR-0007qH-65 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 06 Oct 2012 23:49:02 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([208.118.235.10]:52466) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TKhrR-0007qD-2b for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 06 Oct 2012 23:49:01 -0400 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TKhrQ-00051t-63; Sat, 06 Oct 2012 23:49:00 -0400 In-reply-to: <5070AB89.4090900@cs.ucla.edu> (message from Paul Eggert on Sat, 06 Oct 2012 15:07:05 -0700) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) X-Received-From: 208.118.235.10 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:154151 Archived-At: 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". China used neither the Julian calendar nor the Gregorian calendar then, so there is no argument in favor of using the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar when talking about dates in ancient China. However, all of Europe used the Julian calendar for hundreds of years. That is where the issue arises most strongly. Jan 5, 1000 in the Gregorian calendar was Dec 31, 999 in the Julian calendar. If something happened in Europe on that day, which year do modern historians say it occured in? Is there a convention for which calendar should be used when describing those dates? 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. This special case is rather important -- it includes what shortly thereafter became the US. I think that is enough reason to support it as an option. -- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation 51 Franklin St Boston MA 02110 USA www.fsf.org www.gnu.org Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software. Use Ekiga or an ordinary phone call