4 ms·
I think it is a matter of perspective. Say we take Planck time to be the atomic unit of time. Then really any larger unit of time can be viewed as interval of
by trurl 9y ago
I think it is a matter of perspective. Say we take Planck time to be the atomic unit of time. Then really any larger unit of time can be viewed as interval of time with some error bounds. One you reach time units of on the scale of "days", time zones definitely impact this interval. Saying something happen(s/ed) on a particular day is not precise because a day is just a particular interval of time that varies based upon your time zone.
This is why if you've ever submitted a paper to a conference, the deadline will nearly always be given with an hour level of precision and a time zone. Because just saying submissions are due on day X is not well defined in the modern world.
Edited: Not sure why this is getting downvoted. Do you people seriously believe that 4/23 is the same period of time in NYC as it is in London?
- jwilk 9y agoFrom the HN guidelines: Please resist commenting about being downvoted. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.
- nandemo 9y ago> Do you people seriously believe that 4/23 is the same period of time in NYC as it is in London? Honestly, it sounds like you didn't read the article and/or you misunderstood grandparent comment. The Date class in Java does not represent a calendar date or period of time like "April 23th 2017". It represents an instant in time. It is precise to the millisecond and it does not depend on a specific time zone -- although it can be represented in different time zones. If you give the same (Java) Date value to a bunch of of people around the world and tell them to hook up to your live chat at that date and time, they will be able to attend at that time with no further information (such as timezone).
- hn_throwaway_99 9y agoI think trurl's comment actually serves to highlight how awful java.util.Date's design is, and how important names are in programming. trurl was responding to a comment about Date not having a timezones, on an article that goes in depth as to how Date just represents an instant in time and not a date on a calendar, and he still misunderstood what java.util.Date's represent. Imagine how the legions of programmers new to Java make the same mistake.
- slavik81 9y agoI don't see anything in trurl's comment that makes any reference to java.util.Date. A more charitable reading would be to assume he is discussing the abstract concept of a date as it was mentioned upthread.