Re: Default date output format changed after an upgrade to buster
On Thu 12 Sep 2019 at 06:30:21 (-0400), Dan Ritter wrote:
> David Wright wrote:
> >
> > What surprised me is the use of 12am and 12pm in the States. When
> > I was at grammar school (in the days of 12hour times), you lost
> > marks for writing either of these contradictions. It was either
> > 12 noon, 12 midnight, or 12 o'clock (where there's no ambiguity).
>
> 12 o'clock is the only one of those which is ambiguous.
Perhaps, for some, I have to rewrite the last sentence so they can
understand it.
It was either 12 noon or 12 midnight. However, it would have been
permissible to write 12 o'clock where there was no ambiguity, as in
"Lunch is at 12 o'clock".
> > Even more astonishing is the fact that the US Government switched
> > their am/pm meanings sometime between 2000 and 2008, which shows
> > just how ambiguous they are.
>
> There is only one sensible interpretation:
>
> If 11:59 AM is two minutes before 12:01 PM, then 12:00 is PM.
>
> If 11:59 PM is two minutes before 12:01 AM, then 12:00 is AM.
>
> The problem stems from 12 actually indicating what anybody
> sensible would consider 0.
I'm not sure why you think that 0 has any relevance to the 12-hour
clock: glancing up, I see no "0" inscribed anywhere (except as the
second digit of "10").
Your argument above is arbitrary, placing 12:00 at the *start* of
the period of time 12:00, 12:01, 12:02 …
The counterargument can be held by anybody actually looking at the
face of a clock, where 12 is at the *end* of the sequence … 10, 11, 12.
You might see some logic in either, but I can see no logic in
maintaining what is a contradiction in terms. So it's just a
convention, and one that the US Government changed its view on
some years ago.
Cheers,
David.
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