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I agree, null is often chosen as an option. But null is also not a value by definition so then it becomes hard to do a range check when using say, a start and
by sixdimensional 10y ago
I agree, null is often chosen as an option. But null is also not a value by definition so then it becomes hard to do a range check when using say, a start and end date. Also, what is the difference between a date in the future and null? Semantics I think-a token future date has an explicit value, whereas if you use NULL, the use of that as a future date has a new implicit value that depends on context.
I know maybe it sounds pedantic or perhaps out there but I think that token dates that are fixed and specified as positive or negative infinity gives a mathematical value that can then be reasoned with formulaically, just like we do with calculus. We keep running into finite limits which is what keeps causing problems such as Y2K, Y2K38, the beginning of Unix time (1970-1-1) - maybe if we treated the beginning and end of time as infinity some new method of reasoning about dates would become more apparent. I'm not sure as I haven't gone all the way down the rabbit hole with this idea yet.
- sixdimensional 10y agoAnother thought - if you treat a date as a relative variable related to a frame of reference (example, what if you defined the future to be a token value of today + N days, which means it is always calculated as a dynamic future date ahead of today), maybe we could reason about relative past and present using relative variable dates? Or maybe this is just crazy talk.