On Monday 24 June 2024 05:53:00 pm The Wanderer wrote: > On 2024-06-24 at 09:41, Erwan David wrote: > > > AM/PM would not be so strange if between 11AM and 1 PM it was 12 AM > > ... > > Although I don't think anything or anyone actually does it this way, I > think strictly speaking the correct 12-hour notation for that time would > be "12:00 M" - followed by 12:00:01 PM, and preceded by 11:59:59 AM. > > AM stands for "ante meridiem", i.e., before the midpoint; PM stands for > "post meridiem", i.e., after the midpoint. The only correct term for the > time that is exactly the midpoint would be "meridiem", and therefore, M. > > (Similar logic could be used for 11:59:59 PM, 12:00 M, and 12:00:01 AM, > where the standalone M would stand for "midnight". That does expose one > unfortunate weakness of this system: unless you introduce an additional > layer of complexity, e.g. using "00:00 M", the notations for noon and > midnight would be identical.) So I have this digital clock up there in my panel, and in the virtual machine here running Slackware I also have one. The one under Debian shows 00:00 when it hits midnight, while the one under Slackware shows 12:00...
I wonder what decisions were made to give this result? -- Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters" - Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James M Dakin
