Detect Time Travel

Question

Computers are everywhere nowadays - in cars, trains, skateboards, even nuclear reactors. The possibility that your software will run in a time travelling device is just a matter of time. Can you deal with it? Can you at least detect it?

Your task:

1. Write a program that loops and keeps querying the system time, in order to detect time travel.
2. If time moves forward a day or more between two consecutive queries, it's forward time travel. In this case, your program should print:
   TS TS: YYYY? You mean we're in the future?
3. If time moves back, by any amount, between two consecutive queries, it's backward time travel. In this case, your program should print:
   TS TS: Back in good old YYYY.
4. TS TS are the timestamps before and after the time travel. YYYY is the destination year.
5. Timestamps may be in any format, that includes at least the 4-digit year, month, day, hour, minute and second, separated by non-digits.

Limitations:

1. You must support dates in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, at least.
2. You must use a language that existed before this challenge was posted.
3. You must post your answers only after this challenge was posted.
4. You must use a language that existed before your answer was posted.
5. You may edit your answer only after you've posted it.
6. Your program must not print any output other than the required output. An occasional "Great Scott!" is allowed.

This is code-golf. The shortest answer wins.
Relevant movie references will probably make your answer too long, but might get you upvotes.

Answer 1

Python 2, 210 bytes

from datetime import*
o=0
while 1:n=datetime.now();o=o or n;print"%s;%s: %s? You mean we're in the future?"%(o,n,n.year)if(n-o).days>=1else"%s;%s: Back in good old %s."%(n,o,n.year)if(n<o)else"Great Scott!";o=n

Timestamps are printed in in YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS format, separated with semicolons. Switched to Python 2 from 3 since it's 2 chars shorter to print. Spams stdout with Great Scott! for normies non-time-travellers, since it's easier and cheaper to do that than set up a conditional print.

Answer 2

JavaScript (ES6), 263 bytes

n=Date;o=n.now();(function g(){k=new n;j=new n(o);s=`${k} ${o} `;if(n.now()-o>86400)console.log(`${s}${k.getFullYear()}? You mean we're in the future?`);if(o-n.now()>84600){console.log(`${s}Back in good old ${k.getFullYear()}.`);}o=n.now();setTimeout(g,100);}());

This could probably do with some rewriting to make it more efficient/small.

Source:

n=Date;
o=n.now();

(function go() {
   k=new n;
   j=new n(o);
   s=`${k} ${o} `;
   if (n.now() - o > 86400) {
      console.log(`${s}${k.getFullYear()}? You mean we're in the future?`);
   }
   if (o - n.now() > 84600) {
      console.log(`${s}Back in good old ${k.getFullYear()}.`);
   }
   o=n.now()
   setTimeout(go,100);
}());

Answer 3

Bash + coreutils, 177

d()(date -d@"$@")
for((b=`date +%s`;a=`date +%s`;b=a)){
t=`d $a`\ `d $b`
((a<b))&&d $b "+$t: Back in good old %Y."
((a>b+86400))&&d $b "+$t: %Y? You mean we're in the future?"
}

Answer 4

Python 3, 195

from datetime import*
n=datetime.now
p=n()
while 1:
 c=n();f=(p,c,p.year);s=(0,("%s %s: %s? You mean we're in the future?"%f,"%s %s: Back in good old %s."%f)[p.day>c.day])[p>c];p=c
 if s:print(s)

Currently doesn't print Great Scott because I can't find a good way of only making it occasional.

Answer 5

CJam, 118 bytes

et:Tes{es_@-[TS*Set:TS*':S]\_864e5<{[1$et0="? You mean we're in the future?"N]o}|0<{[_"Back in good old "et0='.N]o}&}g

This does not work with the online interpreter.

Sample output after adjusting my computer's time twice:

2015 10 21 11 2 45 1 3 -10800000 2015 10 23 11 2 45 0 5 -10800000: 2015? You mean we're in the future?
2015 10 23 11 2 53 448 5 -10800000 2015 10 21 11 2 52 0 3 -10800000: Back in good old 2015.

Answer 6

Ruby, 194 bytes

I haven't had the time to really cut this down to size yet. I'm sure there are a few optimizations hiding in there.

require 'time';t=nil;while 1;n=Time.now;if t;s="#{t} #{n}: ";y=n.year;puts t>n ? "#{s}Back in good old #{y}" : (n>t+86400 ? "#{s}#{y}? You mean we're in the future?": "Great Scott!");end;t=n;end

Ungolfed (and a lot more readable):

require 'time'
t=nil
while 1
  n=Time.now
  if t                                             # on second or later pass
    s="#{t} #{n}: "                                # prepare the timestamp
    y=n.year
    puts t>n ?                                     # if we go back
      "#{s}Back in good old #{y}" :                # timestamp + phrase
      (n>t+86400 ?                                 # else, more than one day forward
        "#{s}#{y}? You mean we're in the future?": # timestamp + future
        "Great Scott!")                            # Great Scott!
  end
  t=n                                              # set a new jump point
end

Edit: corrected to ask OS for time, rather than a human.

Answer 7

Lua 5.3, 174 bytes

T=os.time P=print l=T()::a::t=T()b=l.." "..t..": "y=os.date('%Y',t)_=t<l and
P(b.."Back in good old "..y)or t>l+86399 and
P(b..y.."? You mean we're in the future?")l=t goto a

This is playing heavily off of the "Timestamps may be in any format" rule ... which I took the liberty of using the format of "seconds since Jan 1, 1970"


If I keep my shoddy interpretation of printing timestamps, and adopt the structure of MeepDarknessMeep, I can (unethically) squeeze this down to ...

155 bytes

T=os.time::G::l=t or T()t=T()_=(t>l+86399or t<l)and
print(l.." "..t..": "..os.date(t<l
and"Back in good old %Y"or"%Y? You mean we're in the future?"))goto G

Answer 8

Lua 5.3, 179 178 173 171 169 168 163 bytes

q="%Y %c: "c=os.date::a::d=f f=os.time()_=d and(f-d>86399or f<d)and print(c(q,d)..c(q..(f<d and"Back in good old %Y."or"%Y? You mean we're in the future?")))goto a

Side note: If you take out the need for a full year number then subtract six bytes. The reason is that lua's (or windows' or someone's!) %c doesn't output the full year. Because of this, the timestamps may look weird!

This also takes advantage of timestamps being able to be seperated by any non digit characters!

Thanks for notifying me of my old math.abs reference and other improvements @thenumbernine :)

Lua 5.3, 151 bytes

This is 'copying' off of @thenumbernine's method of displaying time by just showing the timestamp instead of the actual date. This isn't competitive since I think it is a bit of cheating, just posting it here to display my work :)

::a::d=f f=os.time()_=d and(f-d>86399or f<d)and print(d.." "..f..os.date(f<d and": Back in good old %Y."or": %Y? You mean we're in the future?"))goto a

Answer 9

Python, 170 165 bytes

from datetime import*
n=datetime.now
c=n()
while 1:
 p=c;c=n()
 if(c-p).days:print p,"%s:"%c,["%s? You mean we're in the future?","Back in good old %s."][c<p]%c.year

This owes a lot to Morgan Thrapp's answer. The main trick here is timedelta normalization, which conveniently makes timedelta.days negative when moving even slightly towards the past, and 0 when moving less than a day to the future.

Answer 10

Caché ObjectScript, 199 bytes

l s k=86400 f  s e=+$H,t=$P($H,",",2) s:'d d=e,s=t s z=$ZDT(h)_" "_$ZDT($H)_": ",y=h\365+1841 w:e>d !,z,y,"? You mean we're in the future?" w:(k*t+e)<(k*s+d) !,z,"Back in good old ",y s h=$H,d=e,s=t

This problem is solvable in plain old MUMPS, but would be unreasonably lengthy, since ANSI MUMPS lacks the $ZD[ATE]T[IME] intrinsic function for formatting dates into human-readable timestamps.

This program will probably not detect time-travel to before 1 Jan 1841, nor time-travel to after 31 Dec 9999, since these are the bounds of the $H[OROLOG] timekeeping intrinsic. This program also only has second-level precision; sub-second-level backwards time glitches will likely escape its notice.

Answer 11

TSQL, 355 bytes

At the work so no fancy cool languges stick with your SQL Server production server =)

Golfed version

declare @a datetime=getdate(),@b datetime,@d float,@ char(99),@y char(4)while 0=0begin select @b=getdate(),@d=cast(@b as float)-cast(@a as float),@y=' '+DATEPART(y,@b),@=cast(@a as char(20))+' '+cast(@a as char(20))+': 'if @d>=1set @=@+@y+'? You mean we''re in the future?'if @d<0set @=@+'Back in good old '+@y+'.'print @ set @a=@b end

More readable version with minor changes.

declare @t0 datetime = getdate(), @t1 datetime, @d float, @m varchar(99), @y char(4)

while 0=0
begin

    set @t1 = getdate()
    set @d = cast(@t1 as float) - cast(@t0 as float)
    set @y = ' ' + DATEPART(yy, @t1)
    set @m = cast(@t0 as varchar(30)) + ' ' + cast(@t0 as varchar(30)) + ': '

    if @d >= 1 set @m = @m + @y + '? You mean we''re in the future?'
    if @d < 0 set @m = @m +  'Back in good old ' + @y + '.'

    print @m

    set @t0 = @t1
end

SQL is not that bad in respect to timestamps since it's a first class data type.

For the golf's sake we are using a type with 3 milliseconds precision. The loop itself takes less that that to iterate (depending of your server). The key here is internaly that time stamp is a float and the integer type counts how many days passed. It ill work fine in January 1, 1753, through December 31, 9999 date range.

Answer 12

VBA, 258 Bytes

Ran with:Excel 2007 in Windows 7

305 bytes if Usability is required

WARNING This MAY Max your CPU and Crash Excel/Windows if you are on a Single Threaded single core computer (Most likely found in 1985)

Sub q()
h=CDbl(Now())
While 1
t=CDbl(Now())
If t>h+1 Then Debug.Print (CDate(t) & " " & CDate(h) & ":" & Year(t) & "? You mean we're in the future?")
If t<h Then Debug.Print (CDate(t) & " " & CDate(h) & ": Back in good old " & Year(t) & ".")
h=t
Wend
End Sub

If you want this Code to be "Testable" then add Application.Wait (Now() + TimeValue("0:00:01")) after h=t

Output

10/22/2015 3:04:45 PM 10/22/2015 3:04:43 PM:2015?You mean we're in the future?
10/22/2015 3:06:48 PM 10/22/2015 3:06:46 PM: Back in good old 2015.

Below is the test file I used. I'm Honestly Amazed at how little security Windows has sometimes. May not run as expected on all computers

Run at Own Risk Could Have Major lasting Side Effects!!!!
Sub DOC() t = 31346.6868055556 Date = DateSerial(Year(t), Month(t), Day(t)) Time = TimeSerial(Hour(t), Minute(t), Second(t)) q End Sub

Answer 13

C: 363 bytes

Minified using this handy script:

#include<stdio.h>
#include<time.h>
void p(time_t*t){char b[64];strftime(b,64,"%FT%T",localtime(t));printf("%s ",b);}int main(void){time_t a,b,d=60*60*24;int y;time(&a);while(1){time(&b);y=localtime(&b)->tm_year+1900;if(b<a){p(&a);p(&b);printf("Back in good old %d\n",y);}else if(b>a+d){p(&a);p(&b);printf("%d? You mean we're in the future?\n",y);}a=b;sleep(1);}}

Original:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>

void p(time_t * t) {
  char b[64];
  strftime(b, 64, "%FT%T", localtime(t));
  printf("%s ", b);
}

int main(void) {
  time_t a, b, d = 60*60*24;
  int y;

  time(&a);
  while(1) {
    time(&b);
    y = localtime(&b)->tm_year+1900;
    if (b < a) {
      p(&a); p(&b); printf("Back in good old %d\n", y);

    } else if (b > a + d) {
      p(&a); p(&b); printf("%d? You mean we're in the future?\n", y);
    }
    a = b;
    sleep(1);
  }
}

Example run:

2015-10-23T23:30:03 1985-06-14T16:27:00 Back in good old 1985   
1985-06-14T16:27:07 1999-02-09T14:15:00 1999? You mean we're in the future?
1999-02-09T14:15:09 2015-02-09T14:15:00 2015? You mean we're in the future?
2015-02-09T14:15:36 2015-10-21T07:28:00 2015? You mean we're in the future?
2015-10-21T07:29:06 1985-10-26T09:00:00 Back in good old 1985
1985-10-26T09:00:28 2055-11-12T06:38:00 2055? You mean we're in the future?
2055-11-12T06:38:12 1919-10-07T00:09:57 Back in good old 1919
1919-10-07T00:09:57 2055-11-12T06:38:14 2055? You mean we're in the future?  # tried to go to 1955 - fail.
2055-11-12T06:39:09 2015-10-23T23:32:03 Back in good old 2015  # auto-time back to 2015 because my laptop didn't like the jump to 2055!

I could get rid of 10 bytes by removing the sleep I guess.

By the way, some time-jumping handiness for Mac/Linux:

sudo date 1026090085  # Sat 26 Oct 1985 09:00:00
sudo date 1021072815  # Wed 21 Oct 2015 07:28:00
sudo date 1112063855  # Intended to be 1955 but is 2055. Don't use!

Answer 14

JavaScript (ES6) 181 174 170 Bytes

for(a=Date;c=b||a.now(),b=d();e=new a(b).getFullYear(),f=`${a(c)} ${a(b):`})b>c+864e5?(g=alert)`${f} ${e}? You mean we're in the future?`:c>b&&g`${f} Back in good old `+e

Note: Has not been tested with a real time machine.

This code runs in Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Node.js Harmony (or io.js for that matter). But, I use alert, so that will have to be replaced by console.log for Node and Io Suport: (187 Bytes)

for(a=Date,b=0;c=b||(d=a.now)(),b=d();e=new a(b).getFullYear(),f=`${a(c)} ${a(b):`})b>c+864e5?(g=console.log)`${f} ${e}? You mean we're in the future?`:c>b&&g`${f} Back in good old ${e}.`

Explained:

// Using for like a while loop, defining relevant variables:
  for (a = Date, b = 0;
// Defing b and c: c becomes b, b becomes now. Also defining a shorthand for Date.now:                                
  c = b || a.now(),
  b = d();
// Defining Variables Relevant to this loop: e is the year according to b, f is the "TS TS:" string:                        
  e = new a(b).getFullYear(),
  f = `${a(c)} ${a(b):`
  )
// If b is greater than c plus a day (in milliseconds):
  b > c + 864e5 ?
  // Alert Time Forwand String: 
    (g = alert)
    `${f} ${e}? You mean we're in the future?`:
// else if c is greater than b:
  c > b &&
  // Alert Time Back String: 
    g `${f} Back in good old `+e

Answer 15

Processing, 270 bytes

int p;long x=System.currentTimeMillis();void draw(){int q=millis(),y=year();if(q<p){t(p);print("Back in good old "+y+".");}if(q>p+86400000){t(p);print(y+"? You mean we're in the future?");}p=q;}void t(int m){print(new java.util.Date(x+m)+" "+new java.util.Date()+": ");}

Expanded:

int p;
long x=System.currentTimeMillis();
void draw() {
  int q=millis(), y=year();
  if (q<p) {
    t(p);
    print("Back in good old "+y+".");
  }
  if (q>p+86400000) {
    t(p);
    print(y+"? You mean we're in the future?");
  }
  p=q;
}
void t(int m) {
  print(new java.util.Date(x+m)+" "+new java.util.Date()+": ");
}

Sample output:

Wed Oct 21 13:21:59 EDT 2015 Mon Oct 19 13:21:59 EDT 2015: Back in good old 2015.
Mon Oct 19 13:22:08 EDT 2015 Wed Oct 21 13:22:08 EDT 2015: 2015? You mean we're in the future

Answer 16

Ruby, 160 157 155 154 bytes

A lot of things to golf here

a=Time.new;loop{b,s,y=Time.new,"#{a} #{b}: ",b.year;$><<(a>b ? s+"Back in good old #{y}.\n":b>a+86400 ? s+"#{y}? You mean we're in the future?\n":"");a=b}

Answer 17

Mathematica, 295 bytes

The program asks the OS every second for new TS.

f:=LocalTime[]
p=Print;
y:=DateString[#,"Year"]&
s:=ToString[#]<>" "&
d:=QuantityMagnitude@DateDifference[a,b]
j=StringJoin;
While[True,
  a=b;
  b=f;
  Pause@1;
  Which[d>=0,
   p@(j@@{s@a,s@b,": ",y@b, 
       "? You mean we are in the future?"}),
   d<0,
   p@(j@@{s@a,s@b," Back in good old ",y@b,"."})]];

Output

Tested by manually feeding in date/time.

DateObject[{2015, 10, 23}, TimeObject[{18, 36, 17.9618}], TimeZone -> \
-4.] DateObject[{2015, 10, 25}, TimeObject[{18, 42, 0.264913}], \
TimeZone -> -4.] : 2015? You mean we are in the future?

DateObject[{2015, 10, 23}, TimeObject[{18, 43, 0.141572}], TimeZone -> -4.] DateObject[{2015, 10, 23}, TimeObject[{18, 42, 3.30681}], TimeZone -> -4.]  Back in good old 2015.

Definitely could have format the output better. It does fulfill the requirements as stated.

Answer 18

Javascript 173 169 162 bytes

Javascript is pretty popular...

for(e=Date,n=e.now;o=n(a=alert);)d=new e,f=d.getFullYear(n(o>n(s=d+` ${e(o)}:`)&&a(s+`Back in good old ${f}.`))-o>864e5&&a(s+f+`? You mean we're in the future?`))

Explanation (Older version of the code):

for(e=Date,n=e.now,a=alert,o=n();;o=n()) //Set up the variables and update o, the previous time

d=new e,s=d+` ${e(o)} `,f=d.getFullYear(), //d is the date, s is a string with the 2 timestamps, f is the year
n()-o>8.64e7&&a(s+f+`? You mean we're in the future?`), //Future check
o>n()&&a(s+`Back in good old ${f}.`) //Past check

Answer 19

Groovy, 244 bytes

def s=9999,d={new Date()},y={it.year+1900},f={t,n->"$t $n: ${y(n)}? You mean we're in the future?"},p={t,n->"$t $n: Back in good old ${y(n)}."},t=d()
while(!sleep(s)){n=d()
c=n.time-t.time
println c<0?p(t,n):c>s*2?f(t,n):'Great Scott!'
t=n}