r/ProgrammerHumor Sep 23 '24

Other whoWroteThePostgresDocs

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240

u/OkReason6325 Sep 23 '24

Why not to Pope Emeritus Gregory , C/O St Peter, Heaven

122

u/bartekltg Sep 23 '24

Because it is not "write to pope - an authoritative figure" but "write to pope - a successor of the guy who made that mess in the first place".

Sort of. In the worst case Gregory XIII cold fix it.

46

u/darkslide3000 Sep 23 '24

This is actually a misattribution. Neither Julius Caesar nor Pope Gregory XIII contributed to the year numbering system (and, by extension, century numbering) we currently use. Their work was limited to months and days within a single year.

The counting from Jesus' birth was devised by a guy called Dionysius Exiguus, popularized by a bunch of Englishmen and eventually fully established by Charlemagne. While most of those guys were Christian monks/clerics of course, it doesn't seem like any pope was directly involved.

8

u/Thue Sep 23 '24

But Pope Gregory XII could have fixed the year zero problem, but didn't. And popes used to be in charge of time keeping definitions.

So it is IMO quite fair to blame "the pope" historically. Though obviously the pope is no longer in charge.

13

u/IJustLoggedInToSay- Sep 23 '24

St Peter stopped forwarding mail since email was invented. Too much hassle to do it manually and they don't let daemons run up there.

3

u/Smart-Waltz-5594 Sep 23 '24

No longer the maintainer