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Re: Time::Local

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From:
Dave Rolsky
Date:
July 6, 2005 12:13
Subject:
Re: Time::Local
Message ID:
Pine.LNX.4.61.0507061151000.27460@urth.org
On Wed, 6 Jul 2005, Juerd wrote:

> I think the problem one has is much bigger even if a day *number* is
> ever displayed. Then beginning with 1 because that's where most humans
> begin counting, is wrong. It's a technical thing, and that should be
> kept as simple as possible, and as technical as possible, for easier
> compatibility with existing technical things.
>
> Calling Sunday 1 and not having a 0 would certainly upset and offend me.
>
> My weeks begin on Mondays, as do most people's weeks here. At the same
> time, I can accept any day as the first day if that first day is 0,
> because 0 is technical and internal anyway, not meant for humans.
>
> I'm sure lots of people would want an index 1 to be Sunday, if there is
> no index 0. This all is solved simply by NOT skipping 0, and using an
> arbitrarily chosen day for the first. Or, well, for compatibility,
> Sunday :)
>
> Computers and Perl count from 0. People count from 1. If something
> begins at 1, it is expected to be a people's thing. And with week days,
> this just doesn't work, as not everyone's week starts at the same day.

On reflection, I realized it doesn't matter too much to me.  In the end, 
I'm likely to need a higher-level interface than this to do something 
interesting (like print a day _name_ or calculate the second Sunday of the 
month) and that interface will just use the information Perl's builtins 
give it.


-dave

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