On Wednesday 28 March 2012, Eric Blake wrote: > On 03/28/2012 03:23 PM, Bruno Haible wrote: > > Eric Blake wrote: > >> the parser is faced with an ambiguity between: > >> > >> (11:38 +1) minute > >> 11:38 (+1 minute) > > > > What is the first interpretation meant to mean? > > The time 11:38 in the timezone UTC+1, plus the unit represented by > 'minute'. > > > "10:38 minute" or "12:38 minute" is not a time designation I have > > ever heard in spoken nor written English. > > True, 'minute' in isolation, without a 'plus one' qualifier, is > unusual; but we have to continue to parse it in isolation since > scripts may now be relying on it. > > > If you ditch this interpretation, there is no ambiguity. > > Yes, we're in violent agreement here: the added context of a +1 (and > in particular, of a '+ 1' with a space after the +), should indeed > favor the spoken preference of a time with no timezone, followed by a > completed relative designation; rather than of a relative designation > with only an implied quantity. It's just that getdate.y is a hairy > mess to properly implement that change without breaking other > worthwhile constructs, so I won't be the one volunteering.
BTW there is an interesting dateutils project not yet finished but worth to have look https://github.com/hroptatyr/dateutils cu, Rudi
