Re: [POLL] Proposed syntax for timestamps with time zone info (was: [FEATURE REQUEST] Timezone support in org-mode datestamps and org-agenda)

[Ihor Radchenko]

Samuel Wales <samologist@gmail.com> writes:

> amazing amount of work and good choices.  i won't object, although
> previous comments re syntax proliferation and 3rd party and personal
> code re stand, while acknowledging the replies.

There is no way around.
The feature has been demanded multiple times. It is _needed_ by users.
Since we clearly need the feature, the best we can do is minimizing the
breakage when designing the new syntax.

Note that the proposed syntax will even work with older versions of Org,
except that time zone information will be obviously ignored.

> bce and ce might be possibilities.  if negative numbers or somethigare
> not uniquely used for that.
>
> can any of this, or the semantics, be in emacs?  emacs has times all
> over the place.

`calendar-read-date' only supports AD, AFAIK. Also, glibc system library
may not work reliably on dates before 1970 (or 1900; I don't remember).

Calc appears to handle negative years though. But not
`parse-time-string'. On the other hand, directly specifying internal
time format works (but not sure if correctly):

(format-time-string "%Y-%m-%d %a %H:%M" (encode-time '(0 10 11 11 09 -1000)) 
"UTC-2:30")

> 1. Reduced timestamp precision:
>    1985-04-12 (day precision, time omitted; available in Org)
>
> current agenda search query semantics seem /currently/ potentially
> confusing re in/equalities for today, now, day precision.  e.g. is
> today a specific minute or can = refer to any minute in the day?  is
> the manual clear?

The manual is not clear. I am not sure where it is important.

-- 
Ihor Radchenko // yantar92,
Org mode contributor,
Learn more about Org mode at <https://orgmode.org/>.
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