It turns out that programming with time intervals is a LOT harder than programming with specific moments in time. Which is a lot harder than you thought when you started… because time zones. And Daylight Wasting Time. And leap years. And leap SECONDS. And relativity…
One of the joys of testing software is getting an exact understanding of what is meant by a date, especially the end date of a range.
“You can’t renew a prescription like that until 6 months have passed.” What does that mean? It makes no sense for it to mean “the date plus 6 months” because August 31 plus 6 months is February 31, and December 31 plus would be June 31. Half a year? A quarter of a year is (usually) 90 days, by convention. So, does that mean 180 days? Half of 365 is 182.5. So 182 days? Or 183? That would be right, for a leap year.
People don’t like questions like that.
Software developers will sometimes think of dates the way the computer does. January 12 is the first moment of January 12, i.e. midnight. So, reporting on 30 days of account activity is every event from midnight on the first day to midnight 30 days later. But the person who wants a report on the most recent 30 days wants all of today’s activity and of the previous 29 days. (Probably.) Youngsters might (in effect) report on today’s activity, so far, and the previous 29 days, and the latter part of the day, 30 days ago.
If developers don’t ask, they’ll assume.
It helps to be nit-picky in my line of work. And tactfully persistent.
Concretionist 8 months ago
It turns out that programming with time intervals is a LOT harder than programming with specific moments in time. Which is a lot harder than you thought when you started… because time zones. And Daylight Wasting Time. And leap years. And leap SECONDS. And relativity…
Rhetorical_Question 8 months ago
Relativity Law of student perception?
bluephrog 8 months ago
At that age I was assigned a report on John. J. Kibastir…could not find any information on the man.
eric_harris_76 8 months ago
Yeah.
One of the joys of testing software is getting an exact understanding of what is meant by a date, especially the end date of a range.
“You can’t renew a prescription like that until 6 months have passed.” What does that mean? It makes no sense for it to mean “the date plus 6 months” because August 31 plus 6 months is February 31, and December 31 plus would be June 31. Half a year? A quarter of a year is (usually) 90 days, by convention. So, does that mean 180 days? Half of 365 is 182.5. So 182 days? Or 183? That would be right, for a leap year.
People don’t like questions like that.
Software developers will sometimes think of dates the way the computer does. January 12 is the first moment of January 12, i.e. midnight. So, reporting on 30 days of account activity is every event from midnight on the first day to midnight 30 days later. But the person who wants a report on the most recent 30 days wants all of today’s activity and of the previous 29 days. (Probably.) Youngsters might (in effect) report on today’s activity, so far, and the previous 29 days, and the latter part of the day, 30 days ago.
If developers don’t ask, they’ll assume.
It helps to be nit-picky in my line of work. And tactfully persistent.
sandpiper 8 months ago
Will guess accuracy is completing a task as planned. And that precision is doing it exactly as planned.*
*Er . . . um . . . uh That’s my first take on it. Maybe after coffee and . . . well. we’ll see.
Jon Premium Member 8 months ago
Must be Caulfield’s understudy.
Mike Baldwin creator 8 months ago
Love that mop. You could do the whole school 5 minutes!