Re: Programming a calendar system

From: "Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@MAIL.COM <mailto:markjreed@...>>
Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2004 10:41 PM
Subject: Re: Programming a calendar system


 > Well, you need to define the months and years of the calendar before
you
 > can get very far.  But for conversion purposes, if you're going to go
by
 > the UNIX time_t value, which has time 0 = 1970 Jan 1 00:00:00 UTC,
 > then you need to know what that time is in Arégan terms.
 >
 > Is the first day of the first month of the first Arégan year 986
(which
 > is your birthday minus 1000 years as you said)  or -986 (which is
 > what you wrote, which is your birthday minus 2000 years means 987 BC)?
 >
 > How many months?  How many days in each month?
 >

The planet's name is AREQA with a Q, but anyway.
I haven't got any names for months etc. yet, I just want to have the
maths first.

01. month: 25 days
02. month: 25 days
03. month: 25 days
04. month: 25 days
05. month: 25 days
06. month: 25 days
07. month: 24 days
08. month: 26 days
09. month: 30 days    => 29 days in leap years:
10. month: 26 days        | The solar year is 456,25
11. month: 26 days        | days long, the calendar
12. month: 24 days        | year has only 456 days.
13. month: 25 days        | Thus, in 4 years, the year
14. month: 25 days        | is 1 day too long.
15. month: 25 days
16. month: 25 days
17. month: 25 days
18. month: 25 days
-------
456

My birthday is August 26, 1986. For me, 1986-1000=986 ... sh**, it
should have been -2000 years to get -986! Sorry!

As for the time the calendar starts (~10:18pm), that's all the same to
me, actually. It's adding a little spice, though. But don't care about
that time.

 > Obviously, Aregan days and our days aren't the same length, so that
 > changes from day to day. What I meant is, at what time of day on that
 > particular date did the Aregan calendar day begin (in whatever the
 > reference time zone is for Aregans if they have such things)?

I don't know. I only thought it to have its point 0 at August 26, -986
in our calendar.

 > Okay, so we have a system in which a year consists of seventeen months
 > of 24-26 days and an eighteenth month of 30 days in most years but
only
 > 29 in every fourth year.  That's of 456 days in a common year and 455
 > days in a leap year.  That adds up to a mean year of 455.75 days, not
 > 456.25.  What am I missing?

My maths are wrong ...? Most probably, but nevertheless look at the note
above where I listed the month lengths again.


Thank you very much for your help!
Carsten

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