5 ms·

Another example of confusing user-intent is "last X days". I.e Does "Last 2 days" indicate: A. Last 48 hours? B. Yesterday + Today up to now C. Yesterday + th

Another example of confusing user-intent is "last X days". I.e Does "Last 2 days" indicate: A. Last 48 hours? B. Yesterday + Today up to now C. Yesterday + the day before.

cryptonector 8y ago
"One month from now" is horrible. Is that "30 days from now" or "same day number next month"? If the latter, then how do you handle a 31st when the next month has 30 days or fewer? (Or a 29th when the next month is February and this is not a leap year?) This is a difficult subject. Recurrence is especially tough to model in a database.
- narag 8y ago
  It depends on the context. I've programmed date logic for holiday calculation, days open for business and deadlines. I like working with dates because it's always well specified.
- wafflebear 8y ago
  How about adding the number of days in the current month?
  - cryptonector 8y ago
    It depends on user intent. Often the user means "same day of the week, four or five weeks from now".
matt-tingen 8y ago
Even something as simple as "tomorrow" can be ambiguous. I often ask my phone to set a reminder for tomorrow. If I'm asking after midnight, what I really mean is "today" since I haven't gone to sleep yet. Google seems to get this right, thankfully.
- MVorlm 8y ago
  IIRC Google uses 4am as the cuttoff. So saying "tomorrow" after that cuttoff will be the following calendar day.
- daveFNbuck 8y ago
  > Google seems to get this right, thankfully. Gets it right for you. If I mean today, I say today. This is especially true when I'm talking to a computer.
  - mseebach 8y ago
    Both the words "today" and "tomorrow" ("morrow" being related to the word "morning") are defined in terms of the day, not whether it's before or after midnight. "Noon tomorrow" spoken at 23:55 or 0:05 refers to the same point in time (~12 hours later) in human language. I would argue that "today" is basically unassigned at night - there is no current day in scope. Sometimes we need to use non-human language to communicate intent correctly to a computer, but we shouldn't let that redefine perfectly good and well established human language.
    - daveFNbuck 8y ago
      This is how you use today and tomorrow. It's not universal to all human language or even to English speakers. Words have different meanings depending on lots of factors including context and region. Your definition has the same issue that mine does, just with sunrise being the time around which the meaning of tomorrow is unclear. How high does the sun have to be before "today" becomes defined and the meaning of "noon tomorrow" shifts by 24 hours? If I wake up before sunrise, does tonight refer to now or to after the next sunset? There's a certain amount of ambiguity inherent to the English language.
      - mseebach 8y ago
        Yes, there's ambiguity, but there's no reason to introduce new ambiguity where none existed before by trying to reason about these words in terms of midnight (possibly for the benefit of computers), when that was never where these words were anchored. That was the point I was trying to make.

Another example of confusing user-intent is "last X days". I.e Does "Last 2 days" indicate: A. Last 48 hours? B. Yesterday + Today up to now C. Yesterday + the day before.

cryptonector 8y ago

"One month from now" is horrible. Is that "30 days from now" or "same day number next month"? If the latter, then how do you handle a 31st when the next month has 30 days or fewer? (Or a 29th when the next month is February and this is not a leap year?) This is a difficult subject. Recurrence is especially tough to model in a database.

narag 8y ago
It depends on the context. I've programmed date logic for holiday calculation, days open for business and deadlines. I like working with dates because it's always well specified.
wafflebear 8y ago
How about adding the number of days in the current month?
- cryptonector 8y ago
  It depends on user intent. Often the user means "same day of the week, four or five weeks from now".

matt-tingen 8y ago

Even something as simple as "tomorrow" can be ambiguous. I often ask my phone to set a reminder for tomorrow. If I'm asking after midnight, what I really mean is "today" since I haven't gone to sleep yet. Google seems to get this right, thankfully.

MVorlm 8y ago
IIRC Google uses 4am as the cuttoff. So saying "tomorrow" after that cuttoff will be the following calendar day.
daveFNbuck 8y ago
> Google seems to get this right, thankfully. Gets it right for you. If I mean today, I say today. This is especially true when I'm talking to a computer.
- mseebach 8y ago
  Both the words "today" and "tomorrow" ("morrow" being related to the word "morning") are defined in terms of the day, not whether it's before or after midnight. "Noon tomorrow" spoken at 23:55 or 0:05 refers to the same point in time (~12 hours later) in human language. I would argue that "today" is basically unassigned at night - there is no current day in scope. Sometimes we need to use non-human language to communicate intent correctly to a computer, but we shouldn't let that redefine perfectly good and well established human language.
  - daveFNbuck 8y ago
    This is how you use today and tomorrow. It's not universal to all human language or even to English speakers. Words have different meanings depending on lots of factors including context and region. Your definition has the same issue that mine does, just with sunrise being the time around which the meaning of tomorrow is unclear. How high does the sun have to be before "today" becomes defined and the meaning of "noon tomorrow" shifts by 24 hours? If I wake up before sunrise, does tonight refer to now or to after the next sunset? There's a certain amount of ambiguity inherent to the English language.
    - mseebach 8y ago
      Yes, there's ambiguity, but there's no reason to introduce new ambiguity where none existed before by trying to reason about these words in terms of midnight (possibly for the benefit of computers), when that was never where these words were anchored. That was the point I was trying to make.