Space Station Lambda

Comments

1. Michael Klier
   July 10th, 2008 | 4:43 pm

   Ok, to save you from having to indent the above comment again I’m trying bbcode (a preview function would really help ;-)).

   Here’s my attempt on it in python (keep in mind that I haven’t done much with python yet, so this could probably be done in a more pythonic way):

   #!/usr/bin/env python
    
   from datetime import datetime, timedelta
    
   def smartdate(now, offset):
       delta = {}
       base = offset
    
       delta['d'] = offset / (60*60*24)
       if delta['d'] > 0:
           offset = (offset - ((60*60*24) * delta['d']))
    
       delta['h'] = offset / (60*60)
       if delta['h'] > 0:
           offset = (offset - ((60*60) * delta['h']))
    
       delta['m'] = offset / 60
       if delta['m'] > 0:
           offset = (offset - (60 * delta['m']))
    
       delta['s'] = offset
    
       if delta['d'] > 1:
           if delta['d'] > 6:
               date = now + timedelta(days=-delta['d'], hours=-delta['h'], minutes=-delta['m'])
               return date.strftime('%A, %Y %B %m, %H:%I')
           else:
               wday = now + timedelta(days=-delta['d'])
               return wday.strftime('%A')
       if delta['d'] == 1:
           return "Yesterday"
       if delta['h'] > 0:
           return "%dh%dm ago" % (delta['h'], delta['m'])
       if delta['m'] > 0:
           return "%dm%ds ago" % (delta['m'], delta['s'])
       else:
           return "%ds ago" % delta['s']
    
   if __name__ == '__main__':
       now = datetime.utcnow()
       offsets = [ 36, 90, 120, 130, 3599, 3600, 3601, 86400, 86500, 173000, 14290010 ]
       for offset in offsets:
           print "%d: %s" % (offset, smartdate(now, offset))

2. Leslie
   July 10th, 2008 | 5:04 pm

   Thanks for the Python version! :)

   Use <pre lang="LANG"> to mark code blocks, where LANG is a valid GeSHi language identifier.

   I’ll probably install a comment preview plugin.

   Don’t worry, editing comments isn’t such a huge chore. I don’t have to reindent stuff.

3. Michael Klier
   July 10th, 2008 | 5:37 pm

   Aha thanks for the info :-).

   I really like posts like this one, solving these little problems is always fun, so keep ‘em coming!

   P.S.: Btw, it seems all “>” in my comment were converted to “>” (and I just noticed that the variable “base” in the function is obsolete, a leftover from previous attempts).

4. Ben Zimmerman
   July 12th, 2008 | 7:41 am

   Here is my python version. A few pieces such as the date format strings were borrowed from Michael Klier’s version.

   from datetime import datetime, timedelta
    
   MINUTE = 60
   HOUR = 60 * 60
   DAY = 60 * 60 * 24
    
   def smart_date(now, offset):
       if offset < MINUTE:
           return '%s seconds ago' % offset
       if offset < HOUR:
           return '%sm%ss ago' % (offset // MINUTE, offset % MINUTE)
       if offset < DAY:
           return '%sh%sm ago' % (offset // HOUR, (offset % HOUR) // MINUTE)
       if offset < (DAY * 2):
           return 'Yesterday'
       old_date = (now - timedelta(seconds=offset))
       if offset < (DAY * 7):
           return old_date.strftime('%A')
       return old_date.strftime('%A, %Y %B %m, %H:%I')
    
   if __name__ == '__main__':
       now = datetime.utcnow()
       for offset in [36, 90, 120, 130, 3599, 3600, 3601, 86400, 86500, 173000, 14290010]:
           print "%d: %s" % (offset, smart_date(now, offset))
   # ouput
   36: 36 seconds ago
   90: 1m30s ago
   120: 2m0s ago
   130: 2m10s ago
   3599: 59m59s ago
   3600: 1h0m ago
   3601: 1h0m ago
   86400: Yesterday
   86500: Yesterday
   173000: Thursday
   14290010: Monday, 2008 January 01, 20:08

5. Brian
   July 13th, 2008 | 1:33 am

   I tried to duplicate your CL algorithm because I thought it was clever.

   #!/usr/bin/ruby
    
   class Time
     def smart_date
       base_bind(Time.now - self, 60, 60, 24) do |sec, min, hour, day|
         if day > 6
           to_s
         elsif day > 1
           strftime '%A'
         elsif day == 1
           'Yesterday'
         elsif hour > 0
           "%dh%dm ago" % [hour, min]
         elsif min > 0
           "%dm%ds ago" % [min, sec]
         else
           "%d seconds ago" % sec
         end
       end
     end
    
     private
     def base_bind(amount, *radices)
       if radices.empty?
         yield amount
       else
         radix = radices.shift
         quotient, remainder = amount.divmod(radix)
         base_bind(quotient, *radices) do |*args|
           yield *args.unshift(remainder)
         end
       end
     end
   end
    
    
   [36, 90, 120, 130, 3599, 3600, 3601, 86400, 86500, 173000, 14290010].each do |offset|
     puts "%d: %s" % [offset, (Time.now - offset).smart_date]
   end

6. Leslie
   July 13th, 2008 | 11:10 am

   Yeah, you know I prefer CL, but… lovely! :)

7. pgd
   August 3rd, 2008 | 10:07 pm

   Well, a Java solution must be presented, also; Joda-time: http://joda-time.sourceforge.net/

8. Leslie
   August 4th, 2008 | 9:14 am

   Looks good! Too bad it’s in Java…

9. evrim
   September 23rd, 2008 | 12:48 am

   floor’ing thrice? um, what about subtracting first then flooring?

   btw, greetz in your blog is not something i would expect to see. i would like to see the documentation of that macro. it’s hard to figure out what your syntactic sugars do.

10. Leslie
    September 23rd, 2008 | 10:20 am

    http://www.google.com/search?q=alan+crowe+base-bind

    Unfortunately Alan hasn’t provided documentation for BASE-BIND, either.

    But it’s not very hard to figure out from the name and the usage in the code.

    You’re right of course that it doesn’t end up numerically optimal. How about posting a version with that flaw fixed? :)

11. mango
    December 12th, 2008 | 5:44 pm

    Why do you nest the base-bind 3 times? Seems like you only use the diff-* variables in the body.

    PS: wordpress uses horizontal space really well (NOT!)

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