Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!ima!haddock!karl
From: karl@haddock.ima.isc.com (Karl Heuer)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Gregorian Calendar start
Message-ID: <18557@haddock.ima.isc.com>
Date: 18 Oct 90 00:50:56 GMT
References: <1002@nlsun1.oracle.nl> <2188@ukc> <2457@root44.co.uk> <18359@haddock.ima.isc.com> <1990Oct13.101434.21356@sq.sq.com> <1990Oct15.013318.19836@tkou02.enet.dec.com>
Reply-To: karl@ima.isc.com (Karl Heuer)
Organization: Interactive Systems, Cambridge, MA 02138-5302
Lines: 36

In article <1990Oct13.101434.21356@sq.sq.com> msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) writes:
>Finally, Karl Heuer (karl@haddock.ima.isc.com) notes:
>>Interestingly, the approximation 365 + 1/4 - 1/128 is simpler, better suited
>>to binary computation, and over four times more accurate.
>
>He's right; it yields 365.2421875 days.  Supposing that this
>calendar was made to agree with the Julian calendar beginning in
>the year 256 (to keep with the above), then the subsequent omitted
>leap years since then would be 384, 512, 640, 768, 896, 1024, 1152, 1280,
>1408, 1536, 1664, 1792, and 1920... numbers much easier for anyone to
>remember than the silly 1700, 1800, 1900 stuff!

Correction.  The proposed change is synchronized to the year 100, and the
Heuerian omitted leap years are 180, 200, 280, 300, 380, 400, 480, 500,
580, 600, 680, 700, and 780... numbers much easier for anyone to
remember than the silly (Gregorian) 6a4, 708, 76c stuff!

Who needs to memorize the *list*, anyway?  For everyday applications all you
need to know is how soon the next unleap is coming, and for that you've got
80 (0t128) years of advance notice.

In article <1990Oct15.013318.19836@tkou02.enet.dec.com> diamond@tkou02.enet.dec.com (diamond@tkovoa) writes:
>In article <1990Oct13.101434.21356@sq.sq.com> msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) writes:
>>But we'll see how *they* like being one day out of step, beginning on
>>March 1 (Gregorian), 2200...
>
>It isn't necessarily a problem.  One would think that along the International
>Date Line, ...

There's a difference, though.  The result of the IDL skew is that when it's
Thu 08-May in one location it's Fri 09-May in another.  The result of a
not-quite-Gregorian calendar is that it would be Thu 08-May in one location
and Thu 09-May in another.  You couldn't buy a calendar in country X and use
it in country Y!

Karl W. Z. Heuer (karl@ima.isc.com or uunet!ima!karl), The Walking Lint