Hi Brian,
On 2013-02-28 09:05 Brian E Carpenter said:
> On 27/02/2013 18:04, Henrik Levkowetz wrote:
>> Hi Melinda,
>>
>> On 2013-02-26 23:31 Melinda Shore said:
>>> On 2/26/13 1:25 PM, Paul E. Jones wrote:
>>>> Seriously, what the heck is 24:00?
>>> That one is weird, no doubt about it, but ultimately
>>> it's 23:59 + 1 minute, which is clear. But I really
>>> think "24:00" is confusing. 0:00 is clearer. I'm
>>> wondering if they're trying to work around some ferkakte
>>> piece of software.
>>
>> No, it's just trying to provide a time indication that people
>> will easily interpret correctly. Trying out the correct
>> notation (using 00:00 and the following date) on people
>> during informal testing, I found that people were much more
>> prone to interpret that as the deadline being 24 hours later
>> than was intended.
>
> Strange. Do they think that a train that departs at 00:01
> is 23 hours and 59 minutes earlier than one that departs at 00:00?
Probably not: I think it's the 00:00 which some people tend to
(unconsciously) translate to 'Midnight', and midnight at a certain
date is, exactly as you point out below, somewhat less clear.
> However, the phrase "midnight on Monday" is certainly unclear.
> I suppose it means 00:00 on Tuesday, but maybe not.
>
> But in any case, while teaching, I chose to set assignment deadlines
> at 23:59 for exactly this reason - nothing is completely idiot proof,
> but this seems to work out OK.
Ack. I'll try to get acceptance for that.
Best regards,
Henrik
