Chiming in with my own anecdote: I most frequently use modified times to find files I've edited recently (today or last few days). I find that an 'intelligent' presentation of information makes this easier than displaying a common date format for every file.
For instance, here's some modified times in Gnome's file manager. It's a different approach from moment.js, and it preserves more precision, but it makes it very easy to distinguish a file changed today, this week, this year and longer ago, without having to read much or remember what the date is. [image: Inline images 1] On 28 February 2018 at 21:52, Brian Granger <[email protected]> wrote: > Paul - thanks. > > What I hear you saying is that you aren't primarily interested in the > "how long ago" question, but more the "when" question. And that when > you think about the "when" question, you want a good amount of > fidelity. > > Is that a good summary? > > I am trying to understand if you don't find the moment.js style useful > because 1) you aren't trying to answer the question it answers (how > long ago) or 2) it is answering the right question in a non-helpful > manner. > > For example, one could imagine answering the "how long ago" question > using an high fidelity ISO 8601 time *interval* format: > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601#Time_intervals > > I am trying to understand and separate the mental model of the user > from the format question (which depends on the mental model)... > > I also wonder if someone has done UX research on the display of > date/times @tgeorgeux ? > > > On Wed, Feb 28, 2018 at 1:42 PM, Paul Ivanov <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > > > On 28 February 2018 at 12:44, Brian Granger <[email protected]> wrote: > > > >> > >> 2) How long ago did I edit that document (in human terms)? ISO 8601 is > >> > >> sub-optimal for that as a user has to look at something like > >> > >> "2018-02-28T15:25:47+00:00", then look at their current time and do > >> > >> that math to figure out "oh, that was 5 minutes ago". The moment js > >> style is optimized to answer this question. > > > > > > Like Matthias, I also disagree. I'd say moment js is optimized for *some* > > people's preference for answering such a question. > > > >> The difference between these two outputs isn't about standards, it is > >> about what question the user is trying to answer. > > > > > > I agree with this, but I would add that even if you fix the question the > > user is trying to answer, the kind of answer the user wants in response > will > > vary user. I would rather have no moment js fuzzy logic anywhere. I know > I > > am not alone. I treat time as coordinate system with a static frame of > > reference- I totally understand some people do not have that preference. > I > > want to know which files I modified in the mornings versus in the > afternoon > > or late at night. I want to think about the files that were written on > > February 28, 2018, and not have that file be referred to as "a day", "a > > week", "a month" ago at various time points down the line. > > > >> Furthermore, that > >> question may change depending on what a user is doing (it changes over > >> time for a single user). Because of that, I don't think putting this > >> as a configuration option makes sense. Having a UI control that allows > >> > >> a user to quickly switch date formats on the fly is probably more > >> appropriate. In terms of the default, my hypothesis is that question > >> 2) above is the question users are asking the majority of the time. > > > > > > That may be true, but the desired answer can still vary by user. > > > > > > > > > > -- > > _ > > / \ > > A* \^ - > > ,./ _.`\\ / \ > > / ,--.S \/ \ > > / `"~,_ \ \ > > __o ? > > _ \<,_ /:\ > > --(_)/-(_)----.../ | \ > > --------------.......J > > Paul Ivanov > > http://pirsquared.org | GPG/PGP key id: 0x0F3E28F7 > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > "Project Jupyter" group. > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > > email to [email protected]. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > To view this discussion on the web visit > > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jupyter/CAKCGbV4uoU8reG3XaPrFmd-HEuMk_ > %2BTmm_C%3DpF7jz2REXw%3DjyQ%40mail.gmail.com. > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > > > -- > Brian E. Granger > Associate Professor of Physics and Data Science > Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo > @ellisonbg on Twitter and GitHub > [email protected] and [email protected] > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Project Jupyter" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/ > msgid/jupyter/CAH4pYpSbJxQk4qrfgPMTjcnd1Z-9O0j3nOqUX2Zgg8c2yUecdw% > 40mail.gmail.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Project Jupyter" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jupyter/CAOvn4qjpDror4_HAB4pkq6A1e2%2BY%2BuBy1OpOAyU%2B334iqDnRWg%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
