A great app, chicks dig it
Calendar authenticity
Response from developer
I'm really not sure what the point you are making here is. The International Fixed Calender is just a restructured and arguably more useful calendar system and really has no relevance to religions. When you posted this on Thursday (named after the norse god Thor) the 12th of March on the International Fixed Calendar a religion really has nothing to do with it. Today I am replying on Saturday (Named after the Romanic god Saturn) the 14th of March. Just because your birthday may appear to have changed date does not mean It its happening on a different day. It's still happening on the very same day of the year.
Needs an overview
Lacking integrations, customizations for format, and week start
First, its only real function is rendering the IFC format (starting from Jan 1 of whatever Gregorian year it is, presumably) in a standalone app window. If you’re lucky, you can also see it as Apple Watch complication. Its app icon shows no date (as does Google Calendar, Apple’s calendar app, and other apps by third party developers), and the actual date is static; if you fold your laptop down with the app open on one day, and then unfold it back onto your lap on a different day, “International Fixed Calendar” will be the same as the day you opened it, with no indication of a “Today”—unless you count restarting the app so it opens onto today, or changing the date yourself manually. This is really more of a cipher/date converter than a calendar. The time it took to produce such paltry output would be better spent developing, say, an actual calendar extension for web browsers.
Second, it fails to account for interoperability. While it can be argued this tool remains so static because it’s a “new standard”, multiple standards always exist simultaneously between regions, cultures, belief systems, etc. And even when a standard is more or less unanimously adopted (as with the Gregorian Calendar), it is still responsible for making sense of the time before its unanimous adoption so that past dates, recognitions of special occasions are properly recalculated (as with the Julian Calendar) into the future. This cipher barely does that for the one Gregorian calendar it converts from, let alone accounting for the Hijri, Buddhist, Ethiopian, Chinese, or any other calendars used worldwide. An “international” calendar tool that does not account for the interfaces between diverse timekeeping approaches worldwide, or reconciliation with approaches from the past…is of very little use.
Third, as a likely result of this poor interfacing, the ordering and recognition of actual days-the literal everyday function of a calendar- barely makes sense, both for days of the week and holidays. This implementation of the IFC is solely fixated on the task of counting forward 28 day increments from January 1. That’s it. Adding to the mystery, this day arbitrarily assumed to necessarily be a Sunday, and the way this calendar works, that means the first of every month must be that day of the week. This is mysterious, because the IFC has been accepted and actually standardized exactly nowhere, so it’s hard to tell what legitimate authority or reasonable logic says the week must begin in the middle of the weekend. This is even more mysterious in light of the explosive technological creativity and feature richness of the app landscape today. Presently, and simply enough, the norm of Sunday-first actively refuted by real and entrenched standards like ISO 8601. Historically, and with somewhat more complication, the IFC has been has been officially rejected on multiple occasions, for confounding the placement of holidays, days of weekly worship, or just which day of the week falls on which number of the month, owing in part to the way that the week (and therefore the year) begins. The (at this point quite obviously stunted) IFC calendar here identifies no holidays whatsoever in its UI - what good does it serve to even recognize days of the week when they don’t accord with the Gregorian days of the week for the year they occur in? Why not build in the competency for users to select their own beginning of the week, as do many if not most *real* calendar apps? If this “Sundayism” is according to the first draft of the IFC designed by its long-dead founder, then it is a standard that failed to gain official recognition or implementation. If it is because Sunday is traditionally viewed as the start of the week in (primarily) the United States, then it’s not international in any real sense, and maybe is more of a rebrand of american calendar norms than a true standard. If it is done out of convenience for app development, then it’s not a standard at all, it’s a lazy workaround. Calendars are devices for measuring centuries or more, and this is no way to do it.
Fourth, the indexing of time entails more than just listing d, Mmmmm, yyyy — it is important in many places to number the weeks of the year, or to subdivide the year into quarters, nothing else would have to change bout the app, necessarily, to show these additional layers of detail. ISO 8601 even builds its own regularity for describing the year around the principle of yyyy-week_number-dd, a consistent feature of both systems (IFC and IS0 8601) which could (have) be(en) used to translate between them.
With all this in view, its sad to see this, as it has an opportunity to help tackle the real and numerous logistical challenges of actually affixing the calendar to more regular and predictable intervals, relevant and adaptable to international (and therefore obviously also multicultural) norms. A tool like this could make the IFC format more relevant, more versatile, and perhaps a successful tool could give broader reform a greater chance at acceptance and integration into timekeeping practice worldwide. Instead, this is what’s out there. Yuck. And yikes.
Response from developer
As stated in my previous reply in relation to the International Fixed Calendar each month starts on a Sunday. This is a fact and not an issue for debate. Should you wish to use a calendar almost identical to the IFC but start each month on a Monday that is great, but it will not be the IFC. I shall quickly explain why the app is as it is before going into detail as to why this app is not like the iOS calendar app. The entire initial purpose of this app was to allow a ‘complication’ to be added to the Apple Watch watch face which would display the IFC date. In the early days of watchOS developers were only able to have an App on them if it was part of an iOS app. Therefore a simple app was created to let you see the current date and scroll around to see other dates if you wish. While this is no longer required it remains since Widgets can now also be added to iOS and iPadOS and the lock screens. Given the limited use and desire for the IFC app globally the team and I have no desire to dedicate so much time to implementing a full on calendar app using the IFC. It was never the original intention and we simply lack the time to implement this as a feature, sorry if this is disappointing. However you are more than welcome to develop your own app. Additionally there is nothing stopping Apple adding the IFC as yet another calendar system which would make the current calendar app and all other apps able to use the IFC. As an ironic twist should they do this and you set it as your default then our app would automatically and without any work from us suddenly convert IFC to…. IFC 🤭 In relation to the different calendar systems in the world. iOS already supports many of them but I’m curious if you have any knowledge of software engineering? You see your device itself actually uses none of the calendar systems you mention but actually counts the number of seconds that have passed since 1st of January 1970. When presenting the time and date to the user it is simply presented in the way that makes sense to them depending on what calendar system they have set at a system level. You then bring up ISO 8601. I’d highly suggest you read up on what that is. The IFC is not recognised by the ISO therefore there is utterly no relevance to bringing this up. Directive 2012/19/EU has as much relevance. On one note you state “multiple standards always exist simultaneously between regions, cultures, belief systems, etc”. Indeed, and such a nightmare it was that 70 years ago the entire world converted to the SI metric system. It is only the USA who continue to use the ancient Roman measures. I feel I have spent far too much time replying here. I am unsure of why you feel a long establish “standard” should somehow be changed. Why not just be the next Moses B. Cotsworth and make a whole new calendar system of your own? Everything you are talking about here speaks of changing the International Fixed Calendar to something completely different. I look forward to seeing the result of your project and hope it leads to an even better more successful calendar system. May I suggest a whole new set of month and day names as that is one of the things I would do differently if I was starting from scratch. Take care. 🖖😁 - Previous response prior to the users edited reply on Sunday 1st of February 2025 IFC (Wednesday 29th of January 2025): Thank you for your review and feedback. 😊 In the International Fixed Calendar standard the first day of the year is a Sunday and this repeats every month. It is therefore something that would not be changed in app. Remember while some regions consider Monday to be the first day of the week the International Fixed Calendar was a change in standard and as such it may not be in common with what you are used to in your local area. I hope this helps you understand why this will not be added.
Not what it says
Response from developer
The main date shown within the app on iPhone and iPad is the date on the International Fixed Calendar. The date picker below it is just a way to change the date on your local calendar system to see what that would be on the International Fixed Calendar. If for example you change the date to the Georgian date of the 18th of June 2025 you will see that the date above will display as Sunday 1st of Sol 2025. The main feature of the app however is to add Complications to Apple Watch or Widgets to iPhone or iPad lock screen and home screens. This gives the current International Fixed Calendar date at a glance. More features may be added within the app itself in time. I hope this helps and would appreciate if you would reconsider your review rating. If you have any further issues you are welcome to contact us for support at ifc-support@skeoch.eu ☺️
