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Number   :  4431
Date     :  2003-04-24
Author   :  Kan Yabumoto
Subject  :  Re: Date Macro
Size(KB) :  1



Bob wrote:

> As a "European" who has to determine a document's origin
> before being able to identify the date, I am pleased to
> see a standard international date format.
> I have used dd mmm yyyy for a decade (e.g. 22 Apr 2003)
> but could easily change to yyyy mmm dd (2003 Apr 22)
> without causing confusion to anyone familiar with english
> calendar months. I am less happy with the all figure
> computer friendly ISO 8601 version but accept that it
> is necessary for multi-language multi-calendar support.

I just checked the status of the ISO-8601

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-time.html

Besides the strong condemnation of the bad habit in
English-speaking cultures using 12:00, it contains
the following paragraph which is very encouraging.

---------------------------------------------------------------
The German standard DIN 5008, which specifies typographical
rules for German texts written on typewriters, was updated in
1996-05. The old German numeric date notations DD.MM.YYYY and
DD.MM.YY have been replaced by the ISO date notations
YYYY-MM-DD and YY-MM-DD. Similarly, the old German time
notations hh.mm and hh.mm.ss have been replaced by the ISO
notations hh:mm and hh:mm:ss. Those new notations are now also
mentioned in the latest edition of the Duden. The German
alphanumeric date notation continues to be for example "3.
August 1994" or "3. Aug. 1994". The corresponding Austrian
standard has already used the ISO 8601 date and time notations
before.

ISO 8601 has been adopted as European Standard EN 28601 and is
therefore now a valid standard in all EU countries and all
conflicting national standards have been changed accordingly.
----------------------------------------------------------------

But, knowing how "conservative" Americans are, I'm not sure
how many more centuries are needed for Americans to change
--- The U.S. cannot even give up the inch-yard stuff even
after most automakers converted to metric.

Kan Yabumoto



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