On 01/08/2018 05:21 AM, Karel Zak wrote: > On Tue, Jan 02, 2018 at 09:53:18AM -0500, J William Piggott wrote: >> Having not received any reply, I went ahead with the >> implementation, with one change involving Karel's original >> request for volunteers. Specifically, the first and last bullet >> points; which where: >> >> * keep the current default "British Empire" behavior (Gregorian since >> September 1752) >> >> * later (after warning in release notes) we can make --gregorian as >> the default >> >> During implementation I considered these issues: >> >> * to do that we'd be creating two new options --iso, and an >> alias --gregorian; these would become non-functional once >> they were made the default. Just like the current situation >> with --one and --sunday. > > It's not so unusual to have command line options for default behavior, > and it's good idea to use these options for example in scripts to be > independent on the current defaults. > Having options for defaults is required if there is a way to change the defaults. In this case there is not. If you want to add ~/.calrc and/or /etc/calrc, then the options would have some meaning; as things stand they only add confusion, IMO. It might be a nice feature to have a config file for cal. For example, I have cal aliased to cal -3. >> * this change is unlikely to affect downstream maintainers >> >> * end users are the ones that may be caught out by it >> >> * a release note warning that some future version of cal(1) >> will change the default output is unlikely to reach the end >> users. > > I have no clue how many users care and read our ReleaseNotes, but > important is that they have opportunity to do that and they have > always time to adopt to changes. This is how I promised that this > project will be maintained. A promise is a promise ;) I really just wanted to avoid adding options that would later become default and meaningless, but we'd be stuck with them forever. Seemed like a bad way to go ... to me. > >> Indirectly, the current tests are broken. I think this >> supports some of the changes in this patch set: >> >> The tests author seemed to believe that the -1 and -s options >> actually do something, despite the 'expected' output showing >> otherwise. While testing this patch set I thought the same >> thing; I tried to figure out what these two options do; which >> is nothing. I think this is good evidence to support removing >> them. > > It's bug that -1/--one does nothing and this bug should be fixed. The > -s seems to set ctl->weekstart (and it would be probably more robust > to compare it with SUNDAY rather than with zero in code). Right, but since -s and -m; -1, -3, -y, and -Y should be mutually exclusive, -s and -1 do nothing (unless there exists a calrc). > >> The tests author also seems to believe that the -j option >> switches from the Gregorian calendar system to the Julian >> calendar system. Making comments to that affect and using it >> in tests involving the year 1752; a year which uses both >> calendar systems. I think this is good evidence to support >> renaming --julian to --ordinal. >> >> If developers for the project are being confused by these >> options, than what chance do end users have? So that's my case >> for making these changes. > > This is good point. I think the problem is that nowhere in the man > page has been described all the history and differences between > calendars. That, and because someone decided to call Gregorian calendars with ordinal days, Julian calendars. What were they thinking! I understand the relationship between ordinal days and Astronomical Julian Days, but Julian Calendars already existed. Talk about namespace violations. I have the impression that this problem is beginning to be recognized and that CS is slowly migrating from julian in favor of ordinal. >> Also while pounding on cal(1), to see if these patches broke >> anything, I found a few other issues and fixed them as well. >> The man page was quite sparse, for example having no explanation >> for the -w argument, so rewrote much of it. > > Thanks. > >> v2 to v3 changelog >> * make proleptic Gregorian the default >> * extensive man page updates >> * rename --julian to --ordinal > > Yes, this is mess... > A mess? Awe, it's not that bad ;) I understand you must keep your promise with regard to warning before changing the default behavior; but you think renaming --julian to --ordinal is not good? >> * add private (for now) --caesar option for exclusive Julian calendar > >> * allow -w to accept its argument >> * update mutually exclusive options >> * add short versions for the new options >> * remove non-functional options >> * fix broken week calculations > > Thanks! > >> >> v1 to v2 changelog >> * fix typo in v1 >> * move REFORMATION_YEAR to the control struct >> * add more about the --1752-reform option to man page >> * add a second patch with minor style and wording changes > > Thanks. I'll work on cal(1) in next days and use us much as possible > from your patches. > > Thanks for patience, I understand that you want to be a little bit > more aggressive with the changes and do it in the "best way" now, but > I'd like to be a little bit more conservative :-) It sounds like you have no choice ;) > > Karel > -- 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
