Re: System time/timezone, was Re: Maximum size .bash_aliases file

[The Wanderer <wanderer@fastmail.fm>]

On 2024-06-24 at 09:41, Erwan David wrote:

> AM/PM would not be so strange if between 11AM and 1 PM it was 12 AM
> ...

Although I don't think anything or anyone actually does it this way, I
think strictly speaking the correct 12-hour notation for that time would
be "12:00 M" - followed by 12:00:01 PM, and preceded by 11:59:59 AM.

AM stands for "ante meridiem", i.e., before the midpoint; PM stands for
"post meridiem", i.e., after the midpoint. The only correct term for the
time that is exactly the midpoint would be "meridiem", and therefore, M.

(Similar logic could be used for 11:59:59 PM, 12:00 M, and 12:00:01 AM,
where the standalone M would stand for "midnight". That does expose one
unfortunate weakness of this system: unless you introduce an additional
layer of complexity, e.g. using "00:00 M", the notations for noon and
midnight would be identical.)

-- 
   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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