From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Stefan Monnier Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: The Emacs Calculator and calendar Date: Sun, 07 Oct 2012 09:57:50 -0400 Message-ID: References: <87y5jk3f7d.fsf@gmail.com> <87626md8aj.fsf@Rainer.invalid> <83vcem6592.fsf@gnu.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1349618280 24014 80.91.229.3 (7 Oct 2012 13:58:00 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2012 13:58:00 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Achim Gratz , emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Eli Zaretskii Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Oct 07 15:58:06 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 1TKrMo-0004r4-PB for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 07 Oct 2012 15:58:02 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:43759 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TKrMi-0000jy-V0 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 07 Oct 2012 09:57:56 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:58707) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TKrMg-0000jO-AR for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 07 Oct 2012 09:57:55 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TKrMf-0003j4-Fe for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 07 Oct 2012 09:57:54 -0400 Original-Received: from ironport2-out.teksavvy.com ([206.248.154.182]:16518) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TKrMe-0003ib-5I; Sun, 07 Oct 2012 09:57:52 -0400 X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: Av0EAG6Zu09FxLQG/2dsb2JhbABEtBGBCIIVAQEEAVYjBQsLNBIUGA0kiBwFugmQRAOjM4FYgwU X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.75,637,1330923600"; d="scan'208";a="200826811" Original-Received: from 69-196-180-6.dsl.teksavvy.com (HELO pastel.home) ([69.196.180.6]) by ironport2-out.teksavvy.com with ESMTP/TLS/ADH-AES256-SHA; 07 Oct 2012 09:57:50 -0400 Original-Received: by pastel.home (Postfix, from userid 20848) id 64C8F594D1; Sun, 7 Oct 2012 09:57:50 -0400 (EDT) In-Reply-To: <83vcem6592.fsf@gnu.org> (Eli Zaretskii's message of "Sun, 07 Oct 2012 10:44:25 +0200") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.2.50 (gnu/linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 206.248.154.182 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:154176 Archived-At: > You are second-guessing users' motives. Is it so unreasonable to ask > for an old date because one is reading a book that uses the calendar > from those old days? No, all it means is that for such old dates, Emacs can't know which calendar the user meant to use unless the user says it explicitly. So it makes a lot of sense to use a default that is simple and consistent (i.e. always use the same calendar, namely the Gregorian) and let the user specify which calendar she wants if she wants another one. To the extent possible, Emacs could let the user specify the calendar indirectly by instead specifying a "context" (a place, plus whatever else is needed to resolve ambiguities), and then let Emacs figure out which calendar was used at that time in that context. Stefan