Re: [RFC 0/5] Date Mode: Add --time-zone; deprecate --date=local
From: Michael Witten <hidden>
Date: 2016-06-15 22:51:04
On Wed, 20 Apr 2011 02:43:18 -0400, Jeff King wrote:
On Wed, Apr 20, 2011 at 02:53:36AM +0000, Michael Witten wrote:quoted
The date format `local' has thus been deprecated, though it is still supported (with a warning on stderr).I don't know if we need to go that far. We can leave it forever as a historical compatibility feature. Its existence is not really hurting anyone as long as the documentation marks it as deprecated (or doesn't even mention it).
The references to a `local' *format* have indeed been removed from the documentation, and the warning is just an indication that the code that supports it will also be removed at some point too. However, the warning mechanism (in general) could be improved by producing the message only when exiting the program (after the pager has been destroyed); currently, the message can be quite easy to miss otherwise (depending on the way the terminal handles the buffer history). I don't see the point of leaving crufty code in place forever; it's ridiculous that my modern CPU starts up like a 35 year old chip when the very few people who need that functionality (if anybody) can emulate it if necessary. As an aside, I've always found it amusing that most programmers are adamant about justifying an existing use case for a new feature before even considering an implementation for it, but yet they will gladly keep around dead code until the next Big Bang.