Great Western Coffee Shop

Sideshoots - associated subjects => News, Help and Assistance => Topic started by: grahame on February 01, 2024, 20:38:10



Title: Coffee Shop time format
Post by: grahame on February 01, 2024, 20:38:10
I regret to say that I do find the time used on this very website somewhat annoying - at the moment it tells me that the time is 07:59 pm.....................no it isn't !

The format we use is "%B %d, %Y, %I:%M:%S %p" where, I think, the letters come from the https://www.php.net/manual/en/datetime.format.php page.   Please feel free to suggest changes - they do need to be made across the whole user base, so if I see lots of different ideas from different people, I'll need to arrange a vote or something.

Edit - format is at https://www.programiz.com/python-programming/datetime/strftime rather than the one quoted above.


Title: Coffee Shop time format
Post by: ChrisB on February 01, 2024, 20:57:15
I'd vote for the 24 hour clock


Title: Coffee Shop time format
Post by: PhilWakely on February 01, 2024, 21:11:11
I'd vote for the 24 hour clock

agreed




Title: Re: Coffee Shop time format
Post by: Red Squirrel on February 01, 2024, 23:52:12
So would I! And just to make a nerdish point, the time separator in the UK is traditionally a full stop rather than a colon, so 23.47 rather than 23:47…


Title: Re: Coffee Shop time format
Post by: PrestburyRoad on February 02, 2024, 05:34:45
Quote
... And just to make a nerdish point, the time separator in the UK is traditionally a full stop rather than a colon, so 23.47 rather than 23:47…

That's fine when you're writing just hours and minutes.  When you also include seconds I think you need to use colon throughout, to avoid something that looks like a misformatted decimal number with two decimal points.


Title: Re: Coffee Shop time format
Post by: broadgage on February 02, 2024, 07:04:17
I also would vote for the 24 hour clock, as used in the great majority of public transport facilities.


Title: Re: Coffee Shop time format
Post by: broadgage on February 02, 2024, 07:10:58
So would I! And just to make a nerdish point, the time separator in the UK is traditionally a full stop rather than a colon, so 23.47 rather than 23:47…

Yes, but the old digital clocks widely used on "network southeast" stations used a semi colon I think. The clocks with an electro mechanical display of dayglow yellow figures against a dark background. Large stations often had several such clocks, each showing a slightly different time.


Title: Re: Coffee Shop time format
Post by: grahame on February 02, 2024, 08:01:56
Change made - with "am" or "pm" removed, leaving ":" between each item; I have read carefully but not gone for a full stop or semicolon in there.  There may be one or two places where the old format is hard coded and if I spot any over coming days I will change those too.


Title: Re: Coffee Shop time format
Post by: froome on February 02, 2024, 09:57:51
But are we on Greenwich Mean Time or Melksham local time?   ;D


Title: Re: Coffee Shop time format
Post by: stuving on February 02, 2024, 10:03:37
Quote
... And just to make a nerdish point, the time separator in the UK is traditionally a full stop rather than a colon, so 23.47 rather than 23:47…

That's fine when you're writing just hours and minutes.  When you also include seconds I think you need to use colon throughout, to avoid something that looks like a misformatted decimal number with two decimal points.

Surely it's more of a problem with one stop and no colons, making a valid decimal number as an alternative interpretation. Writing a time as hours and decimal hours may be very unusual, but it helps (for people as well as programs) to keep to he same presentation for all times and time intervals, and decimal seconds are quite common. And you sometime need both - though perhaps not for trains, where a time given as 11:23:47.93 would invite jeers.


Title: Re: Coffee Shop time format
Post by: grahame on February 02, 2024, 10:13:01
But are we on Greenwich Mean Time or Melksham local time?   ;D

Ah ... no changes made there.   The forum is showing zero offset by default at present from GMT and I will remind myself when the clocks go forward what it does - I think it switches automatically to British Summer Time.  Individual users can set their profile to override that - for example members in France and Sweden can show their local time.

I am not going to add any text for timezone onto the times stated.  And Melksham Local Time (as on the Town Hall Clock) is not internet connected - it's roughly the same as British Standard time but slips a bit because the clock runs slightly slow and is occasionally adjusted by a chap or chapess going up into the rafters.


Title: Re: Coffee Shop time format
Post by: didcotdean on February 02, 2024, 11:04:57
So would I! And just to make a nerdish point, the time separator in the UK is traditionally a full stop rather than a colon, so 23.47 rather than 23:47…
And on the 12 hour clock five past seven traditionally would be 7.5 rather than 7.05 but I can't remember the last time I saw that.


Title: Re: Coffee Shop time format
Post by: ellendune on February 02, 2024, 11:47:44
So would I! And just to make a nerdish point, the time separator in the UK is traditionally a full stop rather than a colon, so 23.47 rather than 23:47…
And on the 12 hour clock five past seven traditionally would be 7.5 rather than 7.05 but I can't remember the last time I saw that.

Yes but those of us who have worked on standards for the last 30 years have a colon separator engrained in us as that is the ISO standard which is also adopted by BSI as a British Standard.

So my nerdishness would grate at the use of a full stop!


Title: Re: Coffee Shop time format
Post by: broadgage on February 02, 2024, 12:57:12
But are we on Greenwich Mean Time or Melksham local time?   ;D

Or even Swindon time ! ISTR that "railway time" was once as told by the station clock at Swindon, GMT came later.
At the Bristol corn exchange there is still a clock with TWO minute hands, one for Bristol time and the other for London time/GMT.


Title: Re: Coffee Shop time format
Post by: Clan Line on February 02, 2024, 14:34:10
24 hr clock - with colon please.  Don't bother with the Leap Second !


Title: Re: Coffee Shop time format
Post by: Red Squirrel on February 02, 2024, 15:06:06
So would I! And just to make a nerdish point, the time separator in the UK is traditionally a full stop rather than a colon, so 23.47 rather than 23:47…
And on the 12 hour clock five past seven traditionally would be 7.5 rather than 7.05 but I can't remember the last time I saw that.

Yes but those of us who have worked on standards for the last 30 years have a colon separator engrained in us as that is the ISO standard which is also adopted by BSI as a British Standard.

So my nerdishness would grate at the use of a full stop!

I was only a quarter serious. Yes, colon makes sense.

Anyway I'll just go back to listening to Maggie Reilly singing Moonlight Shadow... what's that, Maggie? It's 4am in the morning, is it? Thank goodness, I thought it was 4am in the afternoon!



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