3 ms·

Few things irk me as much as systems that show you "N hours/minutes/seconds ago" instead of the timestamp. GitHub for example, of all systems, should know bette

by lijok 3y ago

Few things irk me as much as systems that show you "N hours/minutes/seconds ago" instead of the timestamp. GitHub for example, of all systems, should know better. Trying to write up a report of any sort and not having access to accurate timestamps is very annoying.

jraph 3y ago
I'm with you. It's usually possible to hover the thing to have the actual timestamp show in a tooltip, but this is so clunky.
- pirates 3y ago
  I haven’t checked github, but on gitlab this is a user preference setting that you can change. But I do wish that the full timestamps were the default.
thraxil 3y ago
Yep, my theory is that often that's done as a way to sidestep difficult issues around dealing with time zones. "2 hours ago" doesn't require you to think about whether your user is in the same time zone as your database.
- gbalduzzi 3y ago
  You still have to calculate the distance between a date on the DB and a date on the client, the timezone difficult issues are not sidestepped at all
  - thraxil 3y ago
    Your server and DB are both UTC. If not, that's something you just need to fix. The server can then calculate the difference trivially. Then you no longer need to do anything on the client. Eg, this is what Django's timesince or timeuntil filters do: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.2/ref/templates/builtins/#std-templatefilter-timesince https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.2/ref/templates/builtins...
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
sharat87 3y ago
I attempted to solve this recently with a browser extension at https://github.com/sharat87/inhuman-time https://github.com/sharat87/inhuman-time Previously discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33446662 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33446662
ketozhang 3y ago
Hover your mouse over those and you should get the absolute date. Some if not many are using time tags.
- lijok 3y ago
  Amazing, how have I never seen this. Thank you !

by lijok 3y ago

jraph 3y ago

I'm with you. It's usually possible to hover the thing to have the actual timestamp show in a tooltip, but this is so clunky.

pirates 3y ago
I haven’t checked github, but on gitlab this is a user preference setting that you can change. But I do wish that the full timestamps were the default.

thraxil 3y ago

Yep, my theory is that often that's done as a way to sidestep difficult issues around dealing with time zones. "2 hours ago" doesn't require you to think about whether your user is in the same time zone as your database.

gbalduzzi 3y ago
You still have to calculate the distance between a date on the DB and a date on the client, the timezone difficult issues are not sidestepped at all
- thraxil 3y ago
  Your server and DB are both UTC. If not, that's something you just need to fix. The server can then calculate the difference trivially. Then you no longer need to do anything on the client. Eg, this is what Django's timesince or timeuntil filters do: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.2/ref/templates/builtins/#std-templatefilter-timesince https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.2/ref/templates/builtins...
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]

sharat87 3y ago

I attempted to solve this recently with a browser extension at https://github.com/sharat87/inhuman-time https://github.com/sharat87/inhuman-time Previously discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33446662 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33446662

ketozhang 3y ago

Hover your mouse over those and you should get the absolute date. Some if not many are using time tags.

lijok 3y ago
Amazing, how have I never seen this. Thank you !