Re: Ambiguity

I recently wrote a date calculator for a person at work who is not part of
my team but who had a lot of timestamps to evaluate.

It took me two hours to do this (including debugging and testing and
correcting a problem with floating point rounding) using Visual Basic in a
word document. (I think someone more adept with VB than me could have done
it in 30 minutes).
(If anyone could use a time calculator, or would like to see the code used,
you can get it from this link:
http://www.enternet.co.nz/users/dashwood/TimeCalc.doc )

The point is that it made me think about this whole business with midnight.
The confusion arises because 'everyone knows' there are twenty four hours in
a day. People therefore expect midnight to be 2400. It isn't and it can
never be because the first hour isn't up untill 60 minutes have elapsed. We
have to start at zero and the start point (midnight of the previous day) has
to be 0000. The only confusion I can see is: does 2006/02/25 00:00:00
represent the start or the end of Saturday? (In other words is this
midnight on Saturday or midnight on Friday?) You would expect it to be
midnight on Saturday because the date is Saturday, but in fact it is the
'beginning' of Saturday, at least as far as Visual Basic is concerned... If
you try and add times to this they will be on Saturday (unless you add days,
of course). If you subtract times from this they will move into Friday.

I suspect the confusion in many people's minds is caused because we don't
have an English word equivalent to 'midnight' (denoting the end of the day),
that denotes the START of the day.

Perhaps CLCers might like to suggest a term for this :-)

'Midmorning' definitely doesn't do it and 'midday' is taken...

How about "sparrowfart"? No...? Ideas?

Pete.

TOP POST no more form me below



"Howard Brazee" <howard@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:lb9uv19l9ijm6jkn829m46o2icjtet4chh@xxxxxxxxxx
On Fri, 24 Feb 2006 15:16:04 +0000 (UTC), docdwarf@xxxxxxxxx () wrote:

I am irritated that "gaming" has two very different meanings.

Leaving aside the relationship between meaning and interpretation... are
you likewise irked about the different definitions of 'cleave'?

Actually, I enjoy that difference. I also enjoy it when arts (even
movies) don't spoon feed me the "correct" interpretation of everything
I see.

The trouble with "gaming" is that it isn't obvious whether they are
talking about the one I like, or the one I dislike. I don't want to
go to a gaming activity without knowing which meaning is being used.

As a programmer, I want to make sure ambiguity doesn't result in wrong
actions. Currently there is a thread in IBM-MAIN about the term
12:00 AM. (or 12:00 PM) Not only is this incorrect, but it is
ambiguous and subject to be misinterpreted. One person used the
example of the sign that says:

No parking from 12:00 PM to 12:00 AM.

Another person gave his "obvious" interpretation of what 12:00PM
means, and another person mentioned that REXX uses just the opposite
interpretation.

The time 00:01 AM is incorrect, but it is clear and unambiguous.

12:00 PM is incorrect, unclear, and ambiguous.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Ambiguity
    ... Leaving aside the relationship between meaning and interpretation... ... I want to make sure ambiguity doesn't result in wrong ... The time 00:01 AM is incorrect, but it is clear and unambiguous. ...
    (comp.lang.cobol)
  • Re: JSH: Posting realities, residues result
    ... either not new, too impractical to use, or incorrect. ... In the new cycle, you add the previous result to your list of results ... suppress them will ultimately fail and it will be rogue elements outside ... That, at least, is my interpretation of the historical record of your ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: JSH: Posting realities, residues result
    ... either not new, too impractical to use, or incorrect. ... suppress them will ultimately fail and it will be rogue elements outside ... the power of the cabal (and, by 3d, therefore any of the major countries ... That, at least, is my interpretation of the historical record of your ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: JSH: Posting realities, residues result
    ... Said analysis culminates in indisputable evidence that the result is either not new, too impractical to use, or incorrect. ... Conclude that since said results are so important, any attempt to suppress them will ultimately fail and it will be rogue elements outside the power of the cabal (and, by 3d, therefore any of the major countries in the world, although you seem to be Angloamerocentric) who turn these results into usable attacks. ... Treat all events which could be interpreted as manifestations of your importance as manifestations of your importance and discount alternative interpretations and, in cases, evidence which would tend not to support your interpretation. ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: Access to Objects
    ... "An object shall have its stored value accessed only by an lvalue expression and that lvalue expression has one of the following types..." ... int func{ ... a reasonable interpretation that some reader could have. ... there is indeed ambiguity here - after all, ...
    (comp.std.c)