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docs/calendar.txt
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/* ========================================================================
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* Copyright 1988-2006 University of Washington
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*
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* Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
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* you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
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* You may obtain a copy of the License at
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*
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* http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
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*
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*
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* ========================================================================
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*/
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ALL ABOUT CALENDARS
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Although one can never be sure of what will happen at some future
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time, there is strong historical precedent for presuming that the
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present Gregorian calendar will still be in effect within the useful
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lifetime of the IMAP toolkit. We have therefore chosen to adhere to
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these precedents.
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The purpose of a calendar is to reckon time in advance, to show
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how many days have to elapse until a certain event takes place in the
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future, such as the harvest or the release of a new version of Pine.
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The earliest calendars, naturally, were crude and tended to be based
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upon the seasons or the lunar cycle.
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ANCIENT CALENDARS
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The calendar of the Assyrians, for example, was based upon the
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phases of the moon. They knew that a lunation (the time from one full
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moon to the next) was 29 1/2 days long, so their lunar year had a
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duration of 354 days. This fell short of the solar year by about 11
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days. (The exact time for the solar year is approximately 365 days, 5
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hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds.) After 3 years, such a lunar
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calendar would be off by a whole month, so the Assyrians added an extra
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month from time to time to keep their calendar in synchronization with
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the seasons.
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The best approximation that was possible in antiquity was a 19-year
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period, with 7 of these 19 years having 13 months (leap months). This
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scheme was adopted as the basis for the lunar calendar used by the
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Hebrews. The Arabs also used this calendar until Mohammed forbade
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shifting from 12 months to 13 months; this causes the Muslim holy month
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of Ramadan to move backwards through the seasons, completing a cycle
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every 32 1/2 years.
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When Rome emerged as a world power, the difficulties of making a
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calendar were well known, but the Romans complicated their lives because
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of their superstition that even numbers were unlucky. Hence their
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months were 29 or 31 days long, with the exception of February, which
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had 28 days. Every second year, the Roman calendar included an extra
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month called Mercedonius of 22 or 23 days to keep up with the solar
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year.
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JULIAN CALENDAR
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Even this algorithm was very poor, so that in 45 BCE, Caesar,
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advised by the astronomer Sosigenes, ordered a sweeping reform. By
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imperial decree, the year 46 BCE was made 445 days long to bring the
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calendar back in step with the seasons. The new calendar, similar to
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the one we now use was called the Julian calendar (named after Julius
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Caesar).
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Months in the Julian calendar were 30 or 31 days in length and
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every fourth year was made a leap year (having 366 days) by adding a day
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to the end of the year. This leap year rule was not consistantly
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applied until 8 CE. The year-ending month of February, never a popular
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month, was presently shortened so that Julius Caesar and Emperor
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Augustus could each have long months named after them.
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Caesar also decreed that the year would start with the first of
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January, which since 153 BCE was the day that Roman consuls took office,
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and not the vernal equinox in late March. Not everyone accepted that
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part of his reform, as we shall see.
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GREGORIAN CALENDAR
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Caesar's year was 11 1/2 minutes short of the calculations
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recommended by Sosigenes and eventually the date of the vernal equinox
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began to drift. Roger Bacon became alarmed and sent a note to Pope
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Clement IV, who apparently was not impressed. Pope Sixtus IV later
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became convinced that another reform was needed and called the German
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astronomer, Regiomontanus, to Rome to advise him. Unfortunately,
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Regiomontanus died of the plague shortly thereafter and the plans died
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as well.
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In 1545, the Council of Trent authorized Pope Gregory XIII to
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reform the calendar once more. Most of the mathematical work was done
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by Father Christopher Clavius, S.J. The immediate correction that was
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adopted was that Thursday, October 4, 1582 was to be the last day of the
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Julian calendar. The next day was Friday, with the date of October 15.
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For long range accuracy, a formula suggested by the Vatican librarian
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Aloysius Giglio was adopted. It said that every fourth year is a leap
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year except for century years that are not divisible by 400. Thus 1700,
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1800 and 1900 would not be leap years, but 2000 would be a leap year
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since 2000 is divisible by 400. This rule eliminates 3 leap years every
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4 centuries, making the calendar sufficiently correct for most ordinary
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purposes. This calendar is known as the Gregorian calendar and is the
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one that we now use today.
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It is interesting to note that in 1582, all the Protestant princes
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ignored the papal decree and so many countries continued to use the
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Julian calendar until either 1698 or 1752. Britain and its American
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colonies went from Wednesday, September 2, 1752 to Thursday, September
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14. Prior to the changeover, the British used March 25 as the start of
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the new year.
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In Russia, it needed the revolution to introduce the Gregorian
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calendar in 1918. Turkey didn't adopt it until 1927.
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NUMBERING OF YEARS
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The numbering of the year is generally done according to an "era",
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such as the year of a ruler's reign.
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In about 525, a monk named Dionysius Exiguus suggested that the
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calculated year of Jesus' birth be designated as year 1 in the Julian
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calendar. This suggestion was adopted over the next 500 years and
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subsequently followed in the Gregorian calendar.
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For the benefit of those who seek religious significance to the
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calendar millenium, note that year 1 is too late by at least 4 years.
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Herod the Great, named in the Christian Bible as having all children in
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Bethlehem put to death in an attempt to kill the infant Jesus, died in 4
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BCE.
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Nothing particularly significant of an historic or religious nature
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happened in Gregorian year 1; however it has become a worldwide standard
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as the "common era." In modern times, the terms "CE" (common era) and
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"BCE" (before common era) are preferred over the earlier (and, as we
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have seen, less accurate) "AD" (anno Domini, "the year of the Lord") and
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"BC" (before Christ).
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The Hebrew lunar calendar begins at 3760 BCE, the year of creation
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in Jewish tradition. The Muslim lunar calendar begins on July 16, 622,
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when Mohammed fled from Mecca to Medina.
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The Japanese, Taiwanese, and North Koreans use the Gregorian
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calendar, but number the year by political era. In Japan, an era
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begins when an emperor succeeds to the throne; year 1 of the Heisei
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era was 1989 when Emperor Akihito ascended to the throne (the first
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few days of 1989 was year 64 of the Shouwa era). In Taiwan, year 1 is
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the first full year after the founding of the Republic of China in 1911.
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In North Korea, year 1 is the year of the Juche (self-reliance) ideal,
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corresponding to the birth year of founder Kim Il-Sung (1912). Thus,
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year 2000 is Heisei 12 (Japan), 89th year of the Republic (Taiwan),
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and Juche 89 (North Korea).
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FURTHER MODIFICATIONS TO THE GREGORIAN CALENDAR
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Despite the great accuracy of the Gregorian calendar, it still
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falls behind very slightly every few years. The most serious problem
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is that the earth's rotation is slowing gradually. If you are very
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concerned about this problem, we suggest that you tune in short wave
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radio station WWV or the Global Positioning System, which broadcasts
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official time signals for use in the United States. About once every
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3 years, they declare a leap second at which time you should be
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careful to adjust your system clock. If you have trouble picking up
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their signals, we suggest you purchase an atomic clock (not part of
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the IMAP toolkit).
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Another problem is that the Gregorian calendar represents a year
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of 365.2425 days, whereas the actual time taken for the earth to
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rotate around the Sun is 365.2421991 days. Thus, the Gregorian calendar
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is actually 26 seconds slow each year, resulting in the calendar
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being one day behind every 3,300 or so years (a Y3.3K problem).
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Consequently, the Gregorian calendar has been modified with a
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further rule, which is that years evenly divisible by 4000 are not
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leap years. Thus, the year 4000 will not be a leap year. Or, at
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least we assume that's what will happen assuming that the calendar
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remains unchanged for the next 2000 years.
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The modified Gregorian calendar represents a year of 365.24225
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days. Thus, the modified Gregorian calendar is actually 4 seconds
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slow each year, resulting in the calendar being one day slow every
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20,000 or so years. So there will be a Y20K problem.
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There is some dispute whether the modified Gregorian calendar was
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officially adopted, or if it's just a proposal. Other options (see
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below) exist; fortunately no decision needs to be made for several
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centuries yet.
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There is code in c-client to support the modified Gregorian
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calendar, although it is currently disabled. Sometime in the next
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2000 years, someone will need to enable this code so that c-client is
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Y4K compiliant. Then, 18,000 years from now, someone will have to
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tear into c-client's code to fix the Y20K bug.
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EASTERN ORTHODOX MODIFICATION OF THE GREGORIAN CALENDAR
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The Eastern Orthodox church in 1923 established its own rules to
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correct the Julian calendar. In their calendar, century years modulo
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900 must result in value of 200 or 600 to be considered a leap year.
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Both the Orthodox and Gregorian calendar agree that the years 2000 and
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2400 will be leap years, and the years 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300, 2500,
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2600, 2700 are not. However, the year 2800 will be a leap year in the
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Gregorian calendar but not in the Orthodox calendar; similarly, the
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year 2900 will be a leap year in the Orthodox calendar but not in the
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Gregorian calendar. Both calendars will agree that 3000 and
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3100 are leap years, but will disagree again in 3200 and 3300.
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There is code in c-client to support the Orthodox calendar. It
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can be enabled by adding -DUSEORTHODOXCALENDAR=1 to the c-client
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CFLAGS, e.g.
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make xxx EXTRACFLAGS="-DUSEORTHODOXCALENDAR=1"
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The Orthodox calendar represents a year of 365.24222222... days.
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Thus, the Orthodox calendar is actually 2 seconds slow each year,
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resulting in the calendar being one day slow every 40,000 or so years.
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The Eastern Orthodox church has not yet made any statements on how the
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Y40K bug will be fixed.
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OTHER ISSUES AFFECTING THE CALENDAR IN THE FUTURE
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The effect of leap seconds also needs to be considered when
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looking at the Y3.3K/Y4K, Y20K, and Y40K problems. Leap seconds put
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the clock back in line with the Earth's rotation, whereas leap years
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put the calendar back in line with the Earth's revolution. Since leap
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seconds slow down the clock (and hence the calendar), they actually
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bring the day of reckoning for the Gregorian and Orthodox calendars
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sooner.
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Another factor is that the next ice age (technically, the end of
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the current interglacial period; we are in the middle of an ice age
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now!) is due around Y25K. It is not known what perturbations this will
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cause on the Earth's rotation and revolution, nor what calendar
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adjustments will be necessary at that time.
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Hence my use of "or so" in predicting the years that the calendar
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will fall behind. The actual point may be anywhere from decades (in the
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case of Y3.3K) to millenia (in the case of Y40K) off from these predictions.
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MEANINGS OF DAY NAMES
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The names of days of the week from a combination of Roman and
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Germanic names for celestial bodies:
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. Sunday Latin "dies solis" => "Sun's day"
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. Monday Latin "dies lunae" => "Moon's day"
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. Tuesday Germanic "Tiw's day" => "Mars' day"
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. Wednesday Germanic "Woden's day" => "Mercury's day"
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. Thursday Germanic "Thor's day" => "Jupiter's day"
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. Friday Germanic "Frigg's day" => "Venus' day"
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. Saturday Latin "dies Saturni" => "Saturn's day"
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MEANINGS OF MONTH NAMES
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The names of the months are from the Roman calendar:
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. January Janus, protector of doorways
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. February Februalia, a time for sacrifice to atone for sins
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. March Mars, god of war
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. April Latin "aperire" => "to open" buds
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. May Maia, goddess of plant growth
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. June Latin "juvenis" => "youth"
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. July Julius Caesar
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. August Augustus Caesar
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. September Latin "septem" => "seven"
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. October Latin "octo" => "eight"
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. November Latin "novem" => "nine"
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. December Latin "decem" => "ten"
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As you'll notice, the last four months are numbered 7 to 10, which
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is an artifact of the time when the new year started in March.
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INTERESTING FORMULAE
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There's another reason why the historical starting of the new year
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is significant. Starting with March, the length of months follows a
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mathematical series:
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31 30 31 30 31 31 30 31 30 31 31 28
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This means that you can calculate the day of week for any
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arbitrary day/month/year of the Gregorian calendar with the following
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formula (note all divisions are integral):
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_ _
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| 7 + 31*(m - 1) y y y |
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dow = | d + -------------- + y + - - --- + --- | MOD 7
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|_ 12 4 100 400_|
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where
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d := day of month (1..31)
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m := month in old style (March = 1..February = 12)
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y := year in old style
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dow := day of week (Tuesday = 0..Monday = 6)
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To convert from new style month/year to old style:
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if (m > 2) m -= 2; /* Mar-Dec: subtract 2 from month */
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else m += 10,y--; /* Jan-Feb: months 11 & 12 of previous year */
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Here's another fun formula. To find the number of days between two
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days, calculate a pair of calendar days with the formula (again, all
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divisions are integral), using new style month/year this time:
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m
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m + -
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8 y y y
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d + 30 * (m - 1) + ----- + y * 365 + - - --- + --- - ld
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2 4 100 400
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where:
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d := day of month (1..31)
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m := month in new style (January = 1..December = 12)
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y := year in new style
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ld := leap day correction factor:
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0 for January and February in non-leap years
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1 for January and February in leap years
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2 for all other months in all years
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In C code, the leap day correction factor is calculated as:
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(m < 3) ? !(y % 4) && ((y % 100) || !(y % 400)) : 2
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It's up to you to figure out how to adapt these formulas for the
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Y4K bugfix and the Orthodox calendar. If you're really clever, try to
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use these formulae to implement the C library ctime(), gmtime(), and
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mktime() functions. Most C library implementations use a table of the
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number of days in a month. You don't need it.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
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The original version is from an old Digital Equipment Corporation SPR
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answer for VMS. Modifications for c-client, and additional information
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added by Mark Crispin.
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