I'd like to do some changes to the command cal(1). The current implementation provides extra care about year 1752 -- calendar reformation -- switch from Julian to Gregorian calendar. The problem is that year 1752 is very specific to British Empire and for example Catholic Europe moved to the Gregorian calendar in year 1582. And another countries in another years... for details see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar. cal(1) is not compatible with another tools (e.g. date(1)) for old dates, and it's painful to use cal(1) for old dates as you have no control about the calculations. My suggestion: * keep the current default "British Empire" behavior (Gregorian since September 1752) * add option --gregorian to strictly use Gregorian calendar for all dates with no exceptions (it means dates from year 0 to now, no exceptions for 1582 or 1752, or so...) * for --gregorian also use ISO leap years calculation for all dates Now we use for years < 1752 simple "year/4" calculation. * add to the man page section about Gregorian and Julian calendars and explain where and when Gregorian calendar went into effect, years 1582, 1752 etc. (just to avoid discussions:-) * add option --1752-reform to enable the current "British Empire" behavior (default now) * later (after warning in release notes) we can make --gregorian as the default Comments? Volunteers? Karel -- Karel Zak <kzak@xxxxxxxxxx> http://karelzak.blogspot.com -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe util-linux" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
