Re: improve display of filesystem timestamp resolution

Karl Berry <[email protected]> Wed, 3 Jul 2024 16:10:57 -0600
Newsgroups gmane.comp.sysutils.automake.general
Message-ID <[email protected]>
    A physical entity should always be displayed with its unit.

Agreed in principle, but sorry, I'm not ready to install this one.
Adding a unit to the value and then removing it everywhere the value is
used seems error-prone to me.  How about just displaying it with the
unit (somehow)?  Or having two values, one for the display with the unit
and one without for use.

Also, I don't much want to use a new shell construct just for a cosmetic
purpose like this, even if it is supposedly sufficiently portable. Which
I simply doubt on principle, given our past experiences.

Finally, and trivially, I think "s" would be more in keeping with what
I've seen used for time units in other places (e.g., the sleep option)
than " sec". --thanks, karl.