From: Brian Candler <B.Candler@...>
Date: 2007-03-17T06:30:19+09:00
Subject: Re: Calculating the age given DOB

On Fri, Mar 16, 2007 at 07:49:16PM +0900, Colin Bartlett wrote:
> Extending the original poster's question, as people here are aware
> working in complete months in Gregorian calendars can be tricky.

I remember reading an article about why it can be important though.

For example, in a program which manages a doctor's surgery, it has to be
able to calculate vaccination schedules. These are often specified in
months, e.g. "second vaccination must be 4 to 6 months after the first
vaccination". Unfortunately this means that the minimum and maximum number
of days between vaccinations varies depending on exactly when in the year
you had the first one.

Now of course this is completely ludicrous - the body clock doesn't run in
months, and the medical people should have specified the intervals in days
or weeks. But database programmers are not qualified to make such medical
judgements. And therefore, they have to implement the rules as laid down by
the medical authority.

Regards,

Brian.