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> Can anyone tell me whether it is standard usage - in English - to have two
> names for midnight (i.e. 0:00 of the following day AND 24:00 of the
> preceding day)?
The company I work for manufactures dataloggers. These devices
(essentially sophisticated voltmeters) sit in the field with sensors
attached to them and make measurements, and store the averages,
maxs/mins, etc. of the measurements over a specified time period.
Our dataloggers have two options for timestamps when you are
programming them for output: midnight at 2400 (with "today's" date)
and midnight at 0000 (with "tomorrow's" date).
It is my understanding that most government agencies are required
to reflect their data using 0000. However, in this particular
application it is somewhat faulty. For instance, if you are taking an
hourly average of temperature data and storing that value at the top
of each hour, at midnight you have an hourly average temperature
for the time period of 11:00:01 p.m. to 12 p.m. for "today", but the
timestamp will reflect "tomorrow" if you are using the 0000 format.
So... many of our customers set their timestamp to 2400 & "today's"
date.
This can be a real bear to explain in training and documentation.
Dana W.
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