Re: Shepherd timers

[Felix Lechner via "Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution." <guix-devel@gnu.org>]

Hi Ludo'

On Sun, Mar 24 2024, Ludovic Courtès wrote:

> you can do anything you can do with a service: stop it, unload it,
> load a replacement, and so on.

Wow, do I love those timers!  I just converted my system Mcron jobs to
Shepherd timers.  The user jobs are next.  What a great new feature!

One small suggestion:

Could calendar-event please offer a symbolic interface for days-of-week?
I'm thinking of 'monday, 'tuesday, and so on instead of numbers.

In Europe, the week starts on Mondays.  In the US, it starts on Sundays.
Cron and its descendants made an error in settling on a particular
numbering.  We can fix it now.

With my tongue in cheek, at least one disputed but very old tradition we
received recorded that the world was completed on a Friday, at some time
before sunset.  I could therefore see starting the count on Saturday or,
if anyone would like to have a day of rest, on Sunday, but there is
scant precedent for a start on Monday.  That choice goes back less than
a hundred years.  It was only made official for some parts of the world
in 1988.  That was less than forty years ago. [1][2]

A symbolic interface for the days of the week would, on the other hand,
be more intuitive and equitable towards competiting traditions.

Symbols would also avoid the ordering that elevates one of the weekdays
into the first position and above its peers.

I'd be happy to suggest a patch, if needed. Thanks for this great work!

Kind regards
Felix

[1] https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/days/first-day-of-the-week.html
[2] https://www.calendarr.com/united-states/first-day-of-the-week/