RE: date formats

[Gregory Leblanc <GLeblanc@cu-portland.edu>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stein Gjoen [mailto:sgjoen@mail.nyx.net]
> 
> David Merrill wrote:
> > On Mon, Dec 11, 2000 at 09:32:49AM +0100, Stein Gjoen wrote:
> > > Since SGML is supposed to help authors follow a strict 
> grammar, why not
> > > use it to the fullest here? How about something like this:
> > > <date>
> > >  <year>2000</year>
> > >  <month>12</month>
> > >  <date>11</date>
> > > </date>
> > >
> > > or
> > >
> > > <date>
> > >  <year>2000</year>
> > >  <week>49</week>
> > > </date>
> > >
> > > If you are used to SGML the added verbosity should not be 
> a problem.
> > > This then also simplifies date reformatting into style 
> used in other
> > > countries.
> > 
> > Are you talking docbook or linuxdoc here?
> 
> I was thinking of both.

I'm not alone in seeing LinuxDoc needing to be maintained only for legacy
purposes.  

> > Either way, it seems to me that using ISO dates (YYYY-MM-DD)
> > accomplishes the same thing with less complexity. If we 
> were just now
> > designing db, I *might* agree with you. But there has to be a pretty
> > clear benefit to making a change of this type to an 
> existing standard,
> > and I don't see one.
> 
> It would seem to me that verifying correct date format with sgmlcheck
> or equivalent is simpler the way I suggested it. Also it forces the
> author to keep the problem in mind while converters can format using
> locale settings to a more familiar formats for reading.

Using SGML this is true, although I suspect that if we were using an XML
schema, we could probably force it to adhere to the ISO date format.  I can
look at an ISO date and figure out what it means just as easily as I can
with other date formats, and using the ISO date avoids a lot of translation
issues.

> Time/date can be presented in a number of ways and stated with a
> great range of precision. Having lived in countries that present
> dates as MM-DD-YYYY, DD-MM-YYYY and YYYY-MM-DD I can see the
> benefits of forcing the author here.

Sure, ask authors to use the ISO date, rather than add a few new tags.
People tend to gripe that there are "too many tags".  I'm not sure these
offer enough of an enhancement to be worth justifying.

> Trivia2: in Japan year is occationally stated as the year of the
> emperor's reign.
> <date>
>  <emperor>Heisei</emperor>
>  <year>20</year>
> </date> (Am I Close??)
> 
> Trivia2b: I have heard that in England some kind of legal documents
> are dated by the year of the regent.
> <date>
>  <regent type="Queen" issue="II">Elisabeth</regent>
>  <year>30</year>
> </date> (Definitely not quite correct here)

Ugh.  :)
	Greg


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