[ALUG] Gnome "calendar" is incorrect!

[(Ted Harding)]

On 08-Oct-06 Ted Harding wrote:
> On 08-Oct-06 Adam Bower wrote:
>> On Sun, Oct 08, 2006 at 06:29:24PM +0100, Ted Harding wrote:
>> 
>>> I was prompted to investigate by catching someone referring
>>> to the Julian->Gregorian transition on the radio this morning.
>>> 
>>> I've known about 'cal' since 1984, and about its respect for
>>> the transition (documented in 'man cal').
>> 
>> Aaaah, that explains it then, you had me worried that someone
>> could be a Unix user for over 20 years and not know about cal!
> 
> I have a vivid memory of when I first became aware of this.
> The man page for 'cal' on that 1984 version of Unix (By SoftQuad
> as I recall) mentioned it briefly, though I can't now directly
> recall the exact wording.
> 
> I've just shoved aside a pile of "archival material" (don't
> ask ... ) and delved into dust to retrieve printed manuals
> for SCO Xenix from 1988 which I've been hoarding. There,
> 'man cal' says (final para):
> 
>   The calendar produced is that for England and her colonies.
>   Note that England switched from the Julian to the Gregorian
>   calendar in September of 1752, at which time eleven days
>   were excised from the year. To see the result of this try
>   "cal 9 1752".
> 
> What I do recall from 1984 is the words 'try "cal 9 1753"'
> though I'm not sure about the rest of the context, since I
> seem to recall that they were sort of dropped in for the
> reader to experience the consequences, without being prepared
> for it. But I could be wrong about that. Anyway, I did try
> it, and was delighted; and that's what I do recall.

Thanks to Adam's reference to W. Richard Stevens on the
"ADSL" thread, WRS's web page led me to the original ()
source for the Unix man pages. Under 'cal' I find (stripped
of formatiign commands):

  prints a calendar for the specified year.
  If a month is also specified, a calendar
  just for that month is printed.

  Year can be between 1 and 9999.
  The month is a number between 1 and 12.
  The calendar produced is that for England and her colonies.

  Try September 1752.

and that, I'm now pretty sure, is exactly the laconic (and
teasing) wording I encountered back in 1984!

> In any case, this was one of the details that impressed
> me about Unix (in addition to the big things). Someone had
> taken considerable trouble to get details right, and to think
> of details to get right!
[...]

Cheers,
Ted.

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Date: 08-Oct-06                                       Time: 21:14:50
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