Re: ITL questions (was - prayertime...)

[Nadim Shaikli <shaikli at yahoo dot com>]

--- Omar Abo-Namous <merlin12345 at gmx dot de> wrote:
> I have another question concerning ITL:
> 
> Since hijri-date cannot be foretold perfectly exact, how does the
> ITL-library cope with a mistake in propagation? Is there a function
> or a variable that sets some decision marks ??

No there isn't and I don't there will be as you will never be able to
set a proper 'fudge factor' for the dates to align to what most use
(such as on Newspapers, etc).  The algorithm used in ITL regarding
hijri (sans the umm_alqura code which is a mystery to me as we were
unable to attain the spec for the algorithm - this can't be true !!)
is strictly mathematical.  In other words, it is accurate if the world
was to actually do it based on numbers only and without using
observations (per the manpage).  Since that is not the case you
will always be discrepancies of + or - a day or two.

In passing, it would be great to get a hold of more hijri<->gregorian
algorithms (such as those used in calendar print shops, government
offices, etc) to augment our package.  So let us know if you have
anything to contribute.

Salam.

 - Nadim


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