As expected, I completely agree. It was only the sweeping
statement to which I was taking exception. I'm certainly not
aware of anyplace where ydm is the officially-preferred format
although, like you, I wouldn't be especially surprised if
someone found one.
john
--On Saturday, March 13, 2010 16:09 -0800 "Phillips, Addison"
<addison(_at_)amazon(_dot_)com> wrote:
John Klensin noted:
While it doesn't change the conclusion, I've actually see many
uses of ydm in the wild. I haven't taken the time to try to
find out, but I've assumed that was the reason why the current
version of ISO 8601 moved to "one delimiter and it is hyphen"
from the permissiveness about delimiter choices in its
predecessors.
Normally I hesitate before making sweeping statements like
that :-). In this case, I omitted, for the sake of brevity,
noting that there are many MANY formats in use, especially in
specialized fields such as accounting, and that, like most
anything involving culture or language, one can find nearly
any variation, no matter how "strange" or "foreign" it seems
to outsiders, that is actually in customary use *somewhere*.
There is also a difference between "regularized" usage and
formats derived by well-meaning people based on their own
experience (i.e. a European might very well think first of
ydm, being used to seeing the day preceding the month).
However, I'm unaware of any locale where 'ydm' is a
*preferred* format, any casual or specialized usage
notwithstanding. Probably someone will go find one, just to
prove my first paragraph. In I18N, we usually say that the
answer to any question begins with the phrase "well, it
depends..."
Finally, if one is reading standards, it behooves one to
understand the customs and language adopted there. Date
formats such as this are one such example, just as certain
English words have special meaning in a standards context. The
use of a well-known, unambiguous format, such as ISO
8601-derived dates, is sensible as such a standard as it is
generally inoffensive, language/culture neutral, and
recognizable.
Addison
Addison Phillips
Chair -- W3C Internationalization WG
Internationalization is not a feature.
It is an architecture.
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