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From centuries ago emperors could decrete new eras, and in the last centuries it was rationalized as one emperor reign = one era. So when the new emperor will b

From centuries ago emperors could decrete new eras, and in the last centuries it was rationalized as one emperor reign = one era. So when the new emperor will be enthroned, he will take its emperor name that also will become the era new era name. How the previous emperor exit the throne (death or abdication) is irrelevant.

jrockway 8y ago
He's talking about the software patching issue. If the emperor dies today, how do you update all software to understand the name of the new year? The succession itself is pretty straightforward; people will see it on the news and memorize the new name immediately. Software is more difficult, though. This is not really a new issue. Daylight savings time rules change, leap seconds are added and removed. Most software doesn't care because someone will notice and change the clock, or NTP notices that your clock is a second slow because you forgot the leap second and it moves it forward. But being a second or an hour off is a slightly different problem than not knowing what the current year is called, or how to add/subtract years. Software that wants to be resilient to any of these changes simply uses a timebase that doesn't have leap seconds, daylight savings time, or the year changing... but users want to see "Heisei 30" and not something that is 37 seconds ahead of what their wall clock says the time is. Formatting the time is still an issue no matter what timebase you use.
- titanix2 8y ago
  > If the emperor dies today, how do you update all software to understand the name of the new year? I understood the question but it is pointless: how can you expect software to be magically patched if no update mecanism is in place? Some will, others won’t.
  - occams_chainsaw 8y ago
    You understood the literal question, but not the motivation and thus not the real question.

jrockway 8y ago

He's talking about the software patching issue. If the emperor dies today, how do you update all software to understand the name of the new year? The succession itself is pretty straightforward; people will see it on the news and memorize the new name immediately. Software is more difficult, though. This is not really a new issue. Daylight savings time rules change, leap seconds are added and removed. Most software doesn't care because someone will notice and change the clock, or NTP notices that your clock is a second slow because you forgot the leap second and it moves it forward. But being a second or an hour off is a slightly different problem than not knowing what the current year is called, or how to add/subtract years. Software that wants to be resilient to any of these changes simply uses a timebase that doesn't have leap seconds, daylight savings time, or the year changing... but users want to see "Heisei 30" and not something that is 37 seconds ahead of what their wall clock says the time is. Formatting the time is still an issue no matter what timebase you use.

titanix2 8y ago
> If the emperor dies today, how do you update all software to understand the name of the new year? I understood the question but it is pointless: how can you expect software to be magically patched if no update mecanism is in place? Some will, others won’t.
- occams_chainsaw 8y ago
  You understood the literal question, but not the motivation and thus not the real question.