David Cantrell 🏏

Not only do I currently have a hate-on for #Ireland because of the #rugby, I also have a hate-on for them for the existence of +353 48, and the bug that it exposes in my #perl code. #Bah and #grrr and #harrumph.

#telecoms

Feb 23 at 10:30pmWeb
Show threadJoe MansfieldFeb 23

@DrHyde

Can’t say I agree with you on the rugby there but I’m happy to admit to a wee bit of bias.

However, I’m happy to agree with you about +353 48.

I never knew that existed until your complaint here and I’m amazed. I’ve been working for a company here in the Republic for 20 years, and we have an office in Belfast and I have never seen this dial code shenanigans before.

It’s almost as cooked as our negative DST offset.

Show threadBoston Perl MongersFeb 24

@helvick @DrHyde

what, is the 0 in +353 048 treated as optional?

Show threadDavid Cantrell 🏏Feb 24
@Boston_PM @helvick +353 048 is just wrong. The area code is 48, a leading 0 is a signal to the exchange "here comes an area code, it's not just a local number", but if you're including the country code (353) and the "here comes a country code" signal (the +, which maps to whatever your local international access code is) then the "here comes an area code" signal is obviously an error.
Show threadDavid Cantrell 🏏Feb 24
@Boston_PM @helvick my bug arises because +353 48 is in the Irish numbering plan, but it is mapped on to +44 28 in the UK numbering plan. My code is supposed to support that, but doesn't.
Show threadBoston Perl MongersFeb 24
@DrHyde @helvick ah. SO WITHIN 44-land its 028 but in 353-land its 048 for dual nationality, and for the rest of us its my international access prefix +353 48. Depends on context of caller more deeply than usually.
Extra test cases!
Show threadDavid Cantrell 🏏Feb 24
@Boston_PM @helvick It's either +353 48 or +44 28 for people elsewhere. Actually I'm not sure if +353 48 works - if someone from outside the UK and Ireland would volunteer to make a test call that would be lovely - but +353 48... is the canonical form for 048... when called from within Ireland, so I need to support it even if it can't ever be called.
Show threadDavid Cantrell 🏏Feb 24
@Boston_PM @helvick any volunteers please call +353 48 9047 1155 and confirm that you've got through to the Democratic Unionist Party. I choose them for the spam calls because they're a bunch of cunts and wasting their time is a Meritorious Act.
Show threadBill RickerFeb 24

@helvick @DrHyde

That one I knew about. The negative DST offset has sparked well-meaning bug-reports to CPAN's DateTime module, which have to be declined as Functions as Designed, Government justification not understood but this is reality; yes, client code must accept result of negative offset, we're not going to special-case patching the zone definition to invert it to what passes for normal.

Show threadDavid Cantrell 🏏Feb 24
@helvick negative DST offset WTF? I mean, using DST at all is stupid, but doing it in the wrong direction is ... special. And I've been to Ireland, in the summer and in the winter, I didn't have to reset my watch, it works the same as everywhere else. WTF again? Did they change it recently, or do they just print it with the wrong sign in some standard because they want to make people cry?
Show threadJoe MansfieldFeb 24

@DrHyde

No it’s always been this way legally but no one noticed because it works out to be the same time as GMT with the positive DST offset used in the UK.

IST, Irish Standard Time, is GMT+1, like Paris. The negative DST offset applies from Oct to Mar. So IST in summer is GMT+1 and IST-1 in winter is GMT.

It’s set this way in the original legislation from the 1970s. No one cared until a few years ago when a bunch of platforms and packages realised and ‘fixed’ it.

Yes, it is bonkers.