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diff --git a/doc/getdate.texi b/doc/getdate.texi index 8b83a67a5..c2389f534 100644 --- a/doc/getdate.texi +++ b/doc/getdate.texi @@ -11,6 +11,30 @@ @cindex date input formats @findex getdate +@quotation +Our units of temporal measurement, from seconds on up to months, are so +complicated, asymmetrical and disjunctive so as to make coherent mental +reckoning in time all but impossible. Indeed, had some tyrannical god +contrived to enslave our minds to time, to make it all but impossible +for us to escape subjection to sodden routines and unpleasant surprises, +he could hardly have done better than handing down our present system. +It is like a set of trapezoidal building blocks, with no vertical or +horizontal surfaces, like a language in which the simplest thought +demands ornate constructions, useless particles and lengthy +circumlocutions. Unlike the more successful patterns of language and +science, which enable us to face experience boldly or at least +level-headedly, our system of temporal calculation silently and +persistently encourages our terror of time. + +@dots{} It is as though architects had to measure length in feet, width +in meters and height in ells; as though basic instruction manuals +demanded a knowledge of five different languages. It is no wonder then +that we often look into our own immediate past or future, last Tuesday +or a week from Sunday, with feelings of helpless confusion. @dots{} + +--- Robert Grudin, @cite{Time and the Art of Living}. +@end quotation + This section describes the textual date representations that GNU programs accept. These are the strings you, as a user, can supply as arguments to the various programs. The C interface (via the |