> so all years are the start of a decade
This isn't the standard technical meaning of 'decade'.
This isn't the standard technical meaning of 'decade'.
This whole article and thread is about building technical systems for dates.
In a technical context, 'decade' is a term with a specific standard meaning, which is that it starts on a year ending with a zero.
It's not nerd sniping to point that out in a thread already all about giving dates precise technical meanings!
The thread is nothing but nerd sniping.
There is no technical context for time defining “decades” that is anything other than nominal.
The fact that people are so hung up on this detail is itself evidence that it has no concrete philosophical foundation. Any definition you care to toss around is arbitrary.
It is pure bikeshed, and this is what gives the article its glimmer of truth that validates the satire.
ISO
To save others time, here's the ISO-8601 document which is apparently being referenced: https://dgn.isolutions.iso.org/obp/ui#iso:std:iso:8601:-1:ed...
"decade" is defined in 3.1.2.22:
decade time scale unit (3.1.1.7) of 10 calendar years (3.1.2.21), beginning with a year whose year number is divisible without remainder by ten Note 1 to entry: Decade is also used to refer to an arbitrary duration (3.1.1.8) of 10 years, however decade is not used as such in this document.
Yes, yes, all of the adjectival disclaimers were used to try to align the discussion directly to how words are used "in [that] document." While the document is highly important, there are many technical contexts in which it is completely appropriate to talk about decades without the slightest consideration of how the same term might be used therein.