Re: [Patch] Update 24-hour times to use two digits for the hour

[Eric Wong <e@yhbt.net>]

Varun Varada <varuncvarada@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Eric,
> 
> The issue of being able to determine whether a reply was on a
> different day still arises with your method, as replies that occurred
> before 12:00 on the same day would have the same problem.

True, there's cases where reading the date column is necessary;
but being able to optimize some cases is better than optimizing
none.

> Either way,
> it is just as easy to see the changeover to the next day if it was a
> leading zero, as that indicates a reset of the clock, and it seems
> like quite a subjective preference.

Maybe it's subjective, but having to parse whether a character
is '0' is more effort for me than recognizing a space.  My eyes
don't have to be in focus to recognize a space.

> Nevertheless, it seems like the trade-off of making users learn
> something once vs. repetitively is a false one, given that most people
> are already familiar with seeing times with leading zeroes as 24-hour
> times, and furthermore reading ISO 8601 formats in general. The idea
> of "teaching one thing" in order to make the "output intended for
> humans" ultimately easier to read seems to defeat its original
> purpose, since people would have to unlearn what they already learned
> every time they quickly glance through the output. I hope you'll
> reconsider.

Sorry, no, users need to learn UIs once.

Btw, please stop top-posting.  IMHO, not quoting public emails
at all is acceptable if you don't feel like deciding which parts
to quote.