On Tue, 31 Mar 2020, Aurélien Lajoie wrote:
On Tue, Mar 31, 2020 at 5:07 PM J William Piggott <elseifthen@xxxxxxx> wrote:
It seems like this trend stems from Apple. Jobs was fanatical about
form; but what seems have been lost, is that he was equally fanatical
about function. He required that both be satisfied. I cannot find any
function in cal's year header. Can anyone offer any?
I was not thinking triggering such discussion about cal.
No worries Aurélien, the year header is an unresolved (for me)
discussion from long ago. When I take time to make, what seems like, a
logical argument for a change and only get subjective or fiat responses
it makes my head explode or something. I like coding because it is
logical, I guess that is the way I'm wired.
I don't know if my argument is a good one, reading the code I have found that
for some locale the room available is not enough to put the month and
the year on a single line.
If someone can give me example of one or two locales with this issue
to do some test, I will appreciate it.
So I think for such locale it is better to have the year only at the top.
* the same issue is present for 11 months and 13 months. What makes 12
months special?
* it scrolls off the screen leaving the viewer with unknowable information.
I just think the output is far more functional if the year is always
visible. For locales with long month names that would wrap, use
abbreviated month names and/or 2 digit year. Worst case, use numerical
month label for such locales. What do those locales do now for 13 months?
Is there a locale that breaks the current 13 month output?
And this behavior is closed to the physical calendar and classic year
calendar as you can see on google image "year calendar" search.
Well, that is my complaint of choosing form over function.
So I think we can keep it as it and add an option to change the
behavior (--noyear-header as Karel has proposed)
No need for that; the upstream changes I attempt to make are not for me.
The cal(1) on my system does exactly what I want it to do (including
telling me when it switches to an entirely different calendar system).
What do you think about adding options -A and -B as in ncal ?
[-A months] [-B months]
I have not used ncal; didn't even know about it, to be honest.
Anyway Aurélien, pay no attention to me; carry on with your work. I'm
done now.
