[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Nondenominational calendar patch

[Alan Schmitt <alan.schmitt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

* Eric S. Raymond (esr@xxxxxxxxxxx) wrote:
> This patch makes all necessary changes to go fom BC/AD (Before
> Christ/Anno Domini) to BCE/CE (Before Common Era/Common Era).  A good
> thing unless we want to assume that all Freeciv's future users will
> be Christians.
> 
> If you haven't encountered this usage before, that's because it's 
> mostly an academic one.  Other educated native speakers of English 
> recognize it but don't generate it spomtaneously.
> 
> My patches to the data files already use BCE/CE.  

I thought you were joking the first time, but it seems it's not the
case. I disagree with such a change, because it opens a whole can of
worms (like, what are we going to replace "American" by ? look at the
archive of the mailing list, there are some quite creative answers).
And I don't think freeciv should be only for academics / educated native
English speakers. Everyone I know (and many are non-christian)
understand BC/AD. And guess what: many of them also use the same
calendar.

<joke>
Can I use a dollar bill if I don't trust in God ?
</joke>

Alan

-- 
The hacker: someone who figured things out and made something cool happen.