Re: 24-hour vs. 12-hour time, ambiguity, and abbreviations (was Re: Default date output format changed after an upgrade to buster)

[The Wanderer <wanderer@fastmail.fm>]

On 2019-09-12 at 23:20, John Hasler wrote:

> The Wanderer writes:
>
>> Wherever you need to specify midnight in a form where specifying any
>> other time would get the "AM"/"PM"/"M"(eridiem) abbreviation.
> 
>> To have a two-letter abbreviation for midnight but a one-letter one
>> for noon might be acceptable, although it would feel lopsided to me,
>> but just offhand I don't know of any suitable candidate to be that
>> two-letter abbreviation. Again, do you have any suggestions?
> 
> Why abbreviate at all?  It's been a long time since we stopped needing
> to save bytes.

Why do people abbreviate "AM" and "PM" when speaking out loud?

Again, "on a computer" - or even "in writing" - is not the only context
where these abbreviations get used.

-- 
   The Wanderer

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all
progress depends on the unreasonable man.         -- George Bernard Shaw

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