Mail Archives: djgpp/1997/10/20/21:47:35
Michael Mauch wrote:
>
> > (page dated
> > 1997-04-10, is that the 10th of april or the 4th of October as it is
> > neither American or English date format?)
>
> It's an international format, according to ISO 8601. The order is
> year-month-day. How do you distinguish between American and English date
> formats, aren't they both separated by slashes?
Very poorly. :) However, U.S. (1) dates are written with forward
slashes, and British (2) dates are usually separated by periods. I've
worked with computer systems that use British dates, and they are a
major pain to handle--not because they are any more or less efficient,
but because half of the time the people forget and use the U.S. format.
Since they are writing it on a form instead of freehand, it's often
difficult to tell which is which.
I suppose this is like the metric vs. English measurement system: half
of the world converts while the other half steadfastly refuses. (The
U.S. is a major culprit here, too.)
(1) I hesitate to say American, because there is more than one country
on the continent of America.
(2) Britain includes England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and they all
use the same date format (AFAIK).
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