🚀 go-pugleaf

I can hear it now - thousands of messages - "That's not a bug, that's
a feature!".  See cal(1), then check with your history books.

Rick Richardson, PC Research, Inc. (201) 922-1134, (201) 834-1378 @ AT&T-CP
..!ihnp4!castor!{rer,pcrat!rer} <--Replies to here, not to homxb!gemini, please.

> Someone just pointed this out to me, look at the month of September
> on this calander produced by "cal" for 1752 on a 3B2/400 SVR2: ...

This is correct behavior and a correct calendar, which is why the manual
page (at least, the older version of it) calls attention to that month.
In September 1752, England and its colonies converted to the Gregorian
calendar.  An adjustment was required to bring them into step with the
Catholic nations, which had converted rather earlier.
-- 
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In article <13490@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>, weemba@brahms.BERKELEY.EDU (Matthew P. Wiener) writes:
>
>Does cal(1) work correctly in other countries, by the way?  For example,
>Sweden's approach was to cancel leap year for over four decades in the
>late 17th century.
>
>ucbvax!brahms!weemba	Matthew P Wiener/UCB Math Dept/Berkeley CA 94720

I kind of doubt it, since the manual says the calendar used is that for
England and its (her) colonies.
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 -------------------------------    Disclaimer:  The views contained herein are
|       dan levy | yvel nad      |  my own and are not at all those of my em-
|         an engihacker @        |  ployer or the administrator of any computer
| at&t computer systems division |  upon which I may hack.
|        skokie, illinois        |
 --------------------------------   Path: ..!{akgua,homxb,ihnp4,ltuxa,mvuxa,
						vax135}!ttrdc!levy

Only 11 days were deleted at that time.  Countries which adopted the
Gregorian calendar later may have had to delete more (the difference is
three days per 400 years).  

-- 
Jim Moseman @ CONCURRENT Computer Corporation, Tinton Falls, N.J.
...!vax135!petsd!jjm

In article <17634@rochester.ARPA> ken@rochester.UUCP (Ipse dixit) writes:
>In article <500@codas.ATT.UUCP> mikel@codas.ATT.UUCP (Mikel Manitius) writes:
>>Someone just pointed this out to me, look at the month of September
>>on this calander produced by "cal" for 1752 on a 3B2/400 SVR2:
>>	 Jul			Aug		       Sep
>> S  M Tu  W Th  F  S    S  M Tu  W Th  F  S    S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
>>          1  2  3  4                      1          1  2 14 15 16
>> 5  6  7  8  9 10 11    2  3  4  5  6  7  8   17 18 19 20 21 22 23
>>12 13 14 15 16 17 18    9 10 11 12 13 14 15   24 25 26 27 28 29 30
>
>It is not a bug. September 1752 was the month leap centuries were added
>to the Gregorian calendar. By edict 12 days were deleted from the month
>to make up for the discrepancy the calendar had accumulated over the
>centuries. This prompted cries of "give us back our 12 days". This was
>only in England. Many other European countries did not adjust until
>later, in fact Russia not until early this century.  I remember Asimov
>has an entertaining discussion of this in one of his books.

Actually, most of Western Europe had already made the conversion centuries
before Great Britain and its colonies did in 1752.  The new calendar is
named Gregorian, after Pope Gregory, who ordered the first change since
the time of Julius Caesar (whence came "Julian").  Since the Pope was not
much appreciated in Britain at the time, it took a while to convince the
King and Parliament to adhere to the new standard.

Bob Goudreau

First off it's 11 days not 12.  The reason they had the "give us back our
11 days" riots, was that landlords were trying to charge a full months rent
instead of pro-rating it.  It took an Act of Parliament to get the
landlords to only charge for 2/3 of a month.

Mark Biggar
{allegra,burdvax,cbosgd,hplabs,ihnp4,akgua,sdcsvax}!sdcrdcf!markb

In article <853@ttrdc.UUCP> levy@ttrdc.UUCP (Daniel R. Levy) writes:

> In article <13490@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>, weemba@brahms.BERKELEY.EDU (Matthew P. Wiener) writes:
> >
> >Does cal(1) work correctly in other countries, by the way?  For example,
> 
> I kind of doubt it, since the manual says the calendar used is that for
> England and its (her) colonies.

I'm kinda amazed that all these questions about the date(1) command
have come up!  When I told someone else about all this going on here in
net.bugs (!), they asked me, "Was this posted on April 1st?" Well, was
that question about Sept. 1752 for real or an April Fool's joke?

I hope you guys realise that the Unix manual pages *define* what
features/abilities and sometimes defects each component (command,
system call, subroutine, etc) has, along with other supplied
documentation.  I thought this was obvious, but then this is my job!  I
work in UTS Product Support and I fix bugs and decide what the product
component *should* do, based on what the documentation says (and
sometimes I even have to change the documentation!).  In any case, I
always make sure that the manual page is correct, clear, and true.
Because I consider it the definition of the component.  (the ultimate
authority is the System V Interface Definition, of course).

So, either we have seen a lot of cute jokes, or some people don't
realise how helpful it might be to real the fruitful manual!
-- 
Gordon A. Moffett		...!{ihnp4,seismo,hplabs}!amdahl!gam

I speed up to run over unicorns.
--
[ This does not represent Amdahl Corporation ]