[tz] [PROPOSED 2/2] Prefer “°” to “degrees” when quoting source saying former

Martin Burnicki martin.burnicki at meinberg.de
Tue Jan 24 08:52:18 UTC 2023


Hm, I don't think that using the degree symbol instead of something like 
[deg] or [degree] in source code (message texts or comments) is a good 
idea because the degree symbol is part of the extended character set 
which depends on code page currently selected by the user, and thus may 
be displayed correctly, or not.

In one of my own projects which originates in the time when MS-DOS was 
current, I had used the degree and other symbols of the extended 
character set both in log message texts and in comments.

If you look at those log messages or source code today with tools 
running on Windows, Linux, etc. these symbols were mostly displayed as 
garbage characters, so I just replaced them with "deg" etc., which is 
plain ASCII and thus always displayed correctly.

So exactly the opposite of what is proposed here.

Just my 2 ct, though.

Martin


Paul Eggert via tz wrote:
> ---
>   africa     | 2 +-
>   antarctica | 2 +-
>   2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/africa b/africa
> index cfb9283c..90018808 100644
> --- a/africa
> +++ b/africa
> @@ -1210,7 +1210,7 @@ Zone	Africa/Windhoek	1:08:24 -	LMT	1892 Feb 8
>   # https://libsysdigi.library.illinois.edu/ilharvest/Africana/Books2011-05/3064634/3064634_1914/3064634_1914_opt.pdf#page=27
>   # "On January 1st [1914], a universal standard time for Nigeria was adopted,
>   # viz., half an hour fast on Greenwich mean time, corresponding to the meridian
> -# 7 [degrees] 30' E. long."
> +# 7° 30' E. long."
>   # Lloyd's Register of Shipping (1915) says "Hitherto the time observed in Lagos
>   # was the local mean time. On 1st January, 1914, standard time for the whole of
>   # Nigeria was introduced ... Lagos time has been advanced about 16 minutes
> diff --git a/antarctica b/antarctica
> index f02755ae..fc603e99 100644
> --- a/antarctica
> +++ b/antarctica
> @@ -292,7 +292,7 @@ Zone Antarctica/Rothera	0	-	-00	1976 Dec  1
>   # but that he found it more convenient to keep GMT+12
>   # as supplies for the station were coming from McMurdo Sound,
>   # which was on GMT+12 because New Zealand was on GMT+12 all year
> -# at that time (1957).  (Source: Siple's book 90 Degrees South.)
> +# at that time (1957).  (Source: Siple's book 90° South.)
>   #
>   # From Susan Smith
>   # http://www.cybertours.com/whs/pole10.html

-- 
Martin Burnicki

Senior Software Engineer

MEINBERG Funkuhren GmbH & Co. KG
Email: martin.burnicki at meinberg.de
Phone: +49 5281 9309-414
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinburnicki/

Lange Wand 9, 31812 Bad Pyrmont, Germany
Amtsgericht Hannover 17HRA 100322
Geschäftsführer/Managing Directors: Günter Meinberg, Werner Meinberg, 
Andre Hartmann, Heiko Gerstung
Websites: https://www.meinberg.de  https://www.meinbergglobal.com

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