Re: David Grudek/COR/AXE is out of the office.

From: Paul Morgan (paulswm_at_earthlink.net)
Date: 12/30/03

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    To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 08:13:14 -0500

    On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 01:34:42 +0000, Colin Watson wrote:

    > On Mon, Dec 29, 2003 at 10:01:07AM -0500, Paul Morgan wrote:
    >> On Sun, 28 Dec 2003 01:21:12 +0000, Colin Watson wrote:
    >> > On Sat, Dec 27, 2003 at 05:39:16AM -0500, Paul Morgan wrote:
    >> >> On Sat, 27 Dec 2003 00:50:16 +0000, Ken Gilmour wrote:
    >> >> > I believe the Americans do it backwards... 1/04/2004 being
    >> >> > January 4th rather than 1st of April :-).
    >> >>
    >> >> Who's doing it backwards depends, I guess, on your point of view.
    >> >
    >> > Both "4th January 2004" and "January 4th 2004" are clear; "2004/01/04"
    >> > is clear, and sorts well; "04/01/2004" is sadly ambiguous due to the
    >> > prevalence of the US date format but at least has the benefit of being
    >> > in a rational order (i.e. not middle-endian). "01/04/2004" just has
    >> > nothing to recommend it at all.
    >> >
    >> > I guess it's a religious war, but for once the superior options seem
    >> > technically obvious.
    >>
    >> My point was that neither is "backwards". Dates are no different than any
    >> other language element. Americans usually say, "January fourth, two
    >> thousand three" and so they write their dates that way. Brits tend to say
    >> "Fourth of January...". It's simply dialect stretching back centuries,
    >> and nothing to do with date sorting on computers.
    >
    > You're talking about "4th of January", etc. I'm talking about the
    > meaning of "01/04/2004". Apples and oranges. If you're going to write
    > your dates in an abbreviated form subject to ambiguity then you should
    > pick a rational abbreviated form.

    Then, when I'm in the US, I will pick mm/dd/yy, which is obviously the
    rational choice, based on US custom and usage. When I'm in the UK, I will
    choose dd/mm/yy, for the same reasons. Custom and usage comes from
    shorthand based on the spoken language, as I've already indicated. It
    would be *irrational* to use dd/mm/yy within the context of US culture.

    As I said in my original post, "backwards" depends on your viewpoint.

    >> In any case, software should adapt to the user, not the other way
    >> around.
    >
    > This has nothing to do with software. The exact same problem arises on
    > paper forms.

    Well, now you're moving the goalposts. However, neither the US nor the UK
    date shorthand is responsible for poor form design. If I'm filling out a
    date on a form, and the form doesn't specify the date format, I use the
    three-letter abbreviation for the month. Now, *that's* rational :) 

    -- 
....................paul
It's working as coded.
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