Re: [LEAPSECS] building consensus

From: Zefram <zefram_at_FYSH.ORG>
Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 17:27:41 +0100

Warner Losh wrote:
>A rule implies that it is long term, I guess. Maybe there's a better
>word for that implication.

In the realm of calendars the terminology is "arithmetic" versus
"observational". That's one of the things I included at the start of
this thread. I'd also like to throw in the word "deterministic".

>> The "leap day rule" will most
>> certainly have to accommodate scheduling changes over the millennia.
>
>True.

But any such change would constitute the adoption of a new calendar,
not an observational aspect of the present one. The Gregorian calendar
itself is strictly arithmetic and thus immutable.

There is the alternate point of view that the calendar in actual civil use
in a particular locality, changing between different arithmetic calendars
at different times, constitutes an unpredictable observational calendar.
Perhaps we need a concept of "calendar zone" analogous to time zone,
with a calendar zone database to match.

-zefram
Received on Mon Jun 05 2006 - 09:29:14 PDT