The Nineteenth Byte

Anonymous

18:00

If you're on a system where long is 64 bits, using a double is a terrible idea. You can only count integers up to 2**53. With a long, you get up to 2**63 (2**64 if it's an unsigned long).

feersum

Just never use long in C(++) (except when you have to interface with 3rd parties that do).

Use int64_t for a 64-bit integer.

TuxCopter

^

Or uint64_t if you don't need the sign

Anonymous

^ that

Poke

Did I miss the part where we explained why someone wants to use a double for an integral number

Anonymous

Using a specified-fixed-width type is the best choice

Anonymous

18:02

@DJMcMayhem Are you just trying to get the # of ms since the epoch?

feersum

I have a chat message that tells how do that.

I've actually used it for reference multiple times

TuxCopter

time(NULL)

Why use C++ stdlib when you have C's one

feersum

Jan 14 '15 at 6:46, by feersum

std::chrono::duration_cast<std::chrono::milliseconds>(std::chrono::high_resolution_clock().now().time_since_epoch()).count()

Anonymous

That's the correct solution :)

TuxCopter

chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/33273085#33273085 C is shorter

feersum

18:04

time only gives 1-second resolution, no?

TuxCopter

Ah

DJMcMayhem

@Mego Well, I'm really trying to track how long "x" has been running, so I'm using a timestamp (ms since epoch) and subtracting the start time from the current time

Anonymous

@feersum Assuming it meets POSIX spec, yes

Anonymous

@DJMcMayhem There are much better ways to do that

Anonymous

auto start = std::chrono::high_resolution_clock().now();
// do stuff
auto ms = std::chrono::duration_cast<std::chrono::milliseconds>(std::chrono::high_resolution_clock().now()-start).count()

DJMcMayhem

18:08

Isn't that basically the same thing under the hood?

Oh, my name updated, haha

Anonymous

It's better because you don't need the epoch as a reference point

Anonymous

It will continue to work even after the clock rolls over, so long as your start and end points are on the same side of the rollover

Anonymous

Robustness is a good thing

DrMcMoylex

OK. I'll need to do ms.count / 1000.0 because I need a data type I can return to python

Poke

is timezone a concern

dst is ending soon

muddyfish

18:12

@Poke It's just started for me

Anonymous

@DrMcMoylex What's wrong with giving Python an integral type?

Poke

@muddyfish where

DrMcMoylex

I guess there's nothing wrong with that. And it would be pretty easy to change if I need a floating point type later

muddyfish

@Poke uk

DrMcMoylex

I didn't know the UK used dst

Poke

18:14

Are you sure it started?

Anonymous

I have confidence that muddyfish knows how his home country operates

DrMcMoylex

@Mego BTW thanks for your help! It's really useful

Anonymous

@DrMcMoylex Always glad to help :)

Geobits

Ugh. People shouldn't write about DST if they're going to say stupid things like this:

> Daylight saving time will end at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 6. And with it comes short days and long nights.

Anonymous

Although in this case, he's incorrect - BST (British Summer Time, because the brits always have to use their own terms for stuff) just ended on the 30th

Poke

18:17

@Mego but i'm pretty sure it just ended in the uk... not started

oh

you just said that

Geobits

I can think of something else BST could stand for >_>

Anonymous

DST really just needs to stop being a thing

Anonymous

Less headaches, more common sense

Poke

accurate

muddyfish

@Mego erm, you sure about that

Anonymous

18:19

@muddyfish Apparently not

muddyfish

@Mego we do call it daylight saving time though

TimmyD

@Geobits Because DST is the arbiter of when the sun rises and sets. That scores 5.779 TimmyD's on the arbitrary scale.

Poke

@muddyfish which direction did your clocks go

muddyfish

@Poke backwards by 1 hour

Poke

so it ended

Anonymous

18:21

DST seems to be the result of some legislative cabbages looking back at the Gregorian reform and thinking "Man, skipping ahead 10 days was cool. We should mimic that at a smaller scale by twiddling with our clocks twice a year for no real effect."

Geobits

It's all a huge conspiracy driven by the clock lobby.

Poke

DST is the act of advancing clocks by one hour to preserve daylight

muddyfish

@Mego actually wasn't it for farmers so they could still use about the same times for when they did their stuff?

Poke

When we roll the clocks back it's for the same reason but we're undoing DST

El'endia Starman

@muddyfish That's what I thought too.

muddyfish

18:22

@Poke but winter's just started here?

Anonymous

Man, because having to adjust yourself to the fact that the length of the day changes throughout the year would be so hard

TimmyD

@muddyfish Every single farmer I know doesn't care what the clock says, they go by daylight hours anyway.

DrMcMoylex

Personally, I'd be in favor of doing away with dst and time zones completely and just switching everybody to UTC

Poke

@muddyfish In the winter months it gets darker earlier so we roll the clocks back

muddyfish

@DrMcMoylex there are lots of problems with that

El'endia Starman

18:23

@DrMcMoylex Doing away with time zones will probably not happen for a long time.

Anonymous

@muddyfish DST is to "save daylight" in the summer - allowing for more time outside of normal work hours with daylight, by shifting one daytime hour forward (from morning to evening)

muddyfish

@El'endiaStarman probably not ever due to the worldwide administration

El'endia Starman

It'd take way too much adjusting to stuff like the sun rising at 7 pm.

DrMcMoylex

@El'endiaStarman it'll happen at the same time as everybody adopts bitcoin and lojban

muddyfish

@El'endiaStarman especially when you change time-zones so you have to learn a new timetable of stuff to do - you would effectively do timezones

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Geobits

@El'endiaStarman Not really. I usually had EST, GMT, and JPT all running in my head while I lived in Japan. Just takes a bit of getting used to.

Anonymous

@El'endiaStarman Just look at your clock less. Or recognize that the number shown on a clock is almost entirely meaningless, regardless of the presence or absence of time zones

El'endia Starman

@muddyfish Oooh, that's a good point.

Poke

We just need to do away with time itself

Anonymous

@Poke We can't, it's part of the universe

Poke

18:25

I will work for whatever amount of time feels right from now on

Geobits

@Poke That would be quite a present.

Anonymous

@Geobits mods ban this joker

El'endia Starman

@Geobits ...I guess it's about time the puns started showing up...

Nathan Merrill

@Mego its not meaningless. If I want to go to a store, I can expect that they open around 8-9 am

Geobits

@El'endiaStarman Oh god, I didn't mean to start that again. Can we wind it back?

Nathan Merrill

18:27

that obviously varies from culture to culture

Anonymous

Stores are open from 8 am to 8 pm. Bethesda told me so.

TimmyD

@Geobits Any minute now there will be a flag.

Poke

El'endia Starman

@Geobits Hmm, but each of those is associated with a specific place (in a generic sense). Not the same as it being the same time everywhere, but with similar things happening at different times.

DrMcMoylex

@Geobits If you're not careful, you'll tick some people off

Geobits

18:28

On second thought... maybe not?

Anonymous

The frequency of these puns is increasing at an alarming rate

Poke

Give me a minute... I think I can come up with a good one.

oh

mego already did

GAH

Anonymous

:P

Anonymous

I think it's about time I leave here and go do something useful

El'endia Starman

Alright, hands up everybody, ~~you're all being arrested~~ IT'S HIGH NOON.

Anonymous

18:29

Because Geobits's puns make me want to take a cloth to his timepiece

Geobits

@El'endiaStarman True, but changing time zones doesn't happen all that often for the vast majority of people. And even so, it's not hard to go from "the shops open at 8am" to "the shops open at 6pm". Unless you travel very often, I don't think you'd have an issue with it.

Poke

Are you saying that our digital discussion isn't useful?

Anonymous

It's time for me to become hands-off

Geobits

This has got to stop.
Hammertime

Anonymous

Before the quality of these puns drop from minute to infinitesimal

El'endia Starman

18:30

@Geobits Well, but everyone (except for the lucky sods in GMT) will have to make that adjustment. If we abolish time zones all at once, then suddenly 6 pm is 3 am but nothing else changes.

Geobits

@El'endiaStarman Well yeah, they'd have to adjust once. Ever. That's the whole point.

El'endia Starman

It'd be too massive of a change, though.

Look at how long it's taking for the US to switch to metric.

Geobits

If true, that's a sad statement on humanity.

Anonymous

I leave you with this parting gift:

El'endia Starman

It'd probably also be financially catastrophic, and you'd still have people using local time for a long time hence.

Anonymous

18:32

Time

►

Geobits

You don't have to do the whole world at once, really. Individual countries/states could just choose to use GMT for everything (just like they choose whether to DST). Eventually, I'd hope that common sense wins (but not holding my breath).

I'm not sure how it would actually be financially catastrophic though.

El'endia Starman

Plus, many (most? all?) companies are quite dependent on legacy software, and they were built in a time with time zones.

Poke

@El'endiaStarman Why would we switch to something less superior than imperial? HA

El'endia Starman

@Geobits Well, maybe not so much since computers do a lot of the stock trading these days, but I was thinking that you might have problems with people being confused about when stuff was happening, leading to missed meetings or opportunities etc.

@Poke I know right?! Screw those metric overlords!

TimmyD

@El'endiaStarman You get that now, though.

Geobits

18:36

But it's far less confusing except for that changeover period.

El'endia Starman

The effects of the change-over period wouldn't be limited to a short time after, though.

Poke

The confusing part of DST is that we teach children only that we're changing the time on the clocks; not that we're switching timezones for half a year

Geobits

@El'endiaStarman For people that cling to the old system, sure.

El'endia Starman

@Geobits *points at imperial vs metric again*

Really, the problem here is the Earth's rotation.

If the Earth were tidally locked, we wouldn't need time zones at all!

TuxCopter

If Earth were tidally locked, life would be impossible

El'endia Starman

18:40

My point still stands.

Geobits

Right, but I don't know too many people nowadays that get confused about metric vs imperial. It's just one or the other. Plus our government doesn't help with that, since many things are mandatorily labeled with imperial. Dropping it would be really easy if labeling reqs changed.

Teach kids metric only in school, and in ten/twenty years the whole thing would be over.

El'endia Starman

That's already happening in science classes (at least, in my experience).

Also, Pokemon Go measures distance walked in kilometers, which I think is pretty cool.

mınxomaτ

@El'endiaStarman Can you give me the model number and Android version of your S7?

El'endia Starman

@mınxomaτ o.O

mınxomaτ

?

El'endia Starman

18:53

Up to your data mining shenanigans again?

Geobits

Oh, and IMEI and bank account number too :P

El'endia Starman

@Geobits Oh yeah, I don't mind giving those out.

mınxomaτ

I just want to know why something works on your phone, but not on mine.

El'endia Starman

@mınxomaτ SM-G930V and 6.0.1

mınxomaτ

Well that explains it.

Thanks.

Damnit Samsung.

El'endia Starman

18:57

.....elaborate, please?

mınxomaτ

Samsung puts vastly different hardware into models from different regions. I have the SM-G930F, whose GPU lacks some features.

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