4 ms·

Why didn't they just use UTC for everything? No time zone no bite

• defrost 3y ago
  It's a longitude issue, not a time zone problem. The distance along the zero latitude equator from -179.99 W to +179.99 E should be relatively easy to compute and yet a large proportion of software in the mapping domain screws that up - even software that controls drones and| used by commercial pilots in the US, etc.
  • doctor_eval 3y ago
    Ok so to clarify it’s not the international date line but the latitude? Which makes more sense to me because the international date line is not actually a straight line.
    • defrost 3y ago
      > to clarify it’s not the international date line but the latitude? Longitude. The vertical one that goes from negative to positive at 180 Longitude East or West. Maybe you should get a map out and have a look.
      • doctor_eval 3y ago
        Right. I do know the difference between latitude and longitude; I just mistyped. I was working in Samoa when they changed the date to align with NZ time, so am quite familiar with the region.
        • defrost 3y ago
          No drama, I'm more and more prone to using the wrong word, adding a 'not', and totally screwing up comments now that I've passed 60. I mainly intended to clarify for any readers rather than castigate you, and after the initial remark about time zone I got a little blunt. ( FWIW I made several mistakes in this comment and had to edit twice )
  • dheera 3y ago
    Maybe they should use sin and cos of the angles instead of longitude. A sin, cos pair specifies longitude precisely without any discontinuities. Quaternions would be even better if you want to include latitudes as well. No Euler angles no bite