ISH CLOCK

The internet's oldest fuzzy clock.

The ISH CLOCK tells the approximate time in a human-friendly format — "It is about quarter to ten in the morning" instead of "9:45 AM". First coded in Perl in 1994, it's been telling time the relaxed way for over 30 years.

Version

1.3

Author

Roger Dubar

Implementations

ISH CLOCK is available in three languages:

Language	File	Since
JavaScript	ish.js	1996
Python	ish.py	2020
C	ish.c	2023

Usage

JavaScript

ish();

Python

from ish import IshTime
clock = IshTime()
print(clock.now)
print(clock.then("14:25"))
print(clock.random())

C

gcc -o ish ish.c
./ish

How It Works

The clock rounds the current time to the nearest five-minute interval and expresses it in natural language:

Time	ISH CLOCK says
9:02	It is about nine o'clock in the morning.
9:14	It is about quarter past nine in the morning.
9:31	It is about half past nine in the morning.
9:44	It is about quarter to ten in the morning.
21:55	It is about ten o'clock in the evening.

License

This project is released under the MIT License. See the LICENCE file for details.

Contributions

Contributions to the ISH CLOCK project are welcome.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to all users of the ISH CLOCK over the years.