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Palindrome Day 20200202

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Re: Palindrome Day 20200202

#61

Post by cortesoft »

hibbelig wrote: post #52
thaumasiotes wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The American date notation is simply a direct reflection of the spoken language. We say "February second, 2020" and we write "2/2/2020". (Contra the root comment, I can't agree that 2/2/2020 is a palindrome.) I don't see this as being crazy or even unusual. When order matters, you invariably want big-endian notation, which is why that notation is acceptable everywhere regardless of the usual native notation. But by t…

That middle-endianness is spoken doesn’t make it better. It’s still crazy. Starting with the most general and ending with the most specific is a logical order. Doing it the other way round is also logical. But starting with the middle makes no sense. It doesn’t seem unusual to you because you use it often. That said I’m German and I realize that German postal addresses are crazy for the same reason. I wish we‘d adopt…

For something like addresses, usage pattern is going to matter... if most mail is sent within the city, then putting street first makes sense, because the city is almost always the same; it shouldn't take up valuable real estate at the front of the address.

The broadest unit that is likely to change going first makes sense.

Re: Palindrome Day 20200202

#62

Post by gsich »

hibbelig wrote: post #52
thaumasiotes wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The American date notation is simply a direct reflection of the spoken language. We say "February second, 2020" and we write "2/2/2020". (Contra the root comment, I can't agree that 2/2/2020 is a palindrome.) I don't see this as being crazy or even unusual. When order matters, you invariably want big-endian notation, which is why that notation is acceptable everywhere regardless of the usual native notation. But by t…

That middle-endianness is spoken doesn’t make it better. It’s still crazy. Starting with the most general and ending with the most specific is a logical order. Doing it the other way round is also logical. But starting with the middle makes no sense. It doesn’t seem unusual to you because you use it often. That said I’m German and I realize that German postal addresses are crazy for the same reason. I wish we‘d adopt…

Or from botton to top: country, city, zip, housenumber, street, name.

Re: Palindrome Day 20200202

#63

Post by gmac »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #39
skrebbel wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love the term "middle endianness" and how clearly it highlights how nuts the American date notation is. EDIT: fwiw, in my native language, most numbers from 100 and 1000 are pronounced middle endian, so I'm not complaining.

The American date notation is simply a direct reflection of the spoken language. We say "February second, 2020" and we write "2/2/2020". (Contra the root comment, I can't agree that 2/2/2020 is a palindrome.) I don't see this as being crazy or even unusual. When order matters, you invariably want big-endian notation, which is why that notation is acceptable everywhere regardless of the usual native notation. But by t…

Chicken and egg. I (in British English) say the second of February.

Re: Palindrome Day 20200202

#64

Post by bmn__ »

FTA:

> Because of the Gregorian Calendar Reform of 1582, the numbers of days after 1001-01-01 are fictitious, strictly spoken. They are valid only then, if we adopt the reform for dates before 1582, subsequently.

The explanation is muddled. This concept has a name, the definition at WP is succinct and clear: http://enwp.org/Proleptic_calendar

Re: Palindrome Day 20200202

#65

Post by mopsi »

hibbelig wrote: post #52
thaumasiotes wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The American date notation is simply a direct reflection of the spoken language. We say "February second, 2020" and we write "2/2/2020". (Contra the root comment, I can't agree that 2/2/2020 is a palindrome.) I don't see this as being crazy or even unusual. When order matters, you invariably want big-endian notation, which is why that notation is acceptable everywhere regardless of the usual native notation. But by t…

That middle-endianness is spoken doesn’t make it better. It’s still crazy. Starting with the most general and ending with the most specific is a logical order. Doing it the other way round is also logical. But starting with the middle makes no sense. It doesn’t seem unusual to you because you use it often. That said I’m German and I realize that German postal addresses are crazy for the same reason. I wish we‘d adopt…

What's so crazy about the German notation? Seems to make perfect sense, as it goes line-by-line from the smallest to the largest sorting unit:

1. Exact street location (street + house)

2. District (postal code)

3. City

4. Country

Also I prefer this order over the Chinese, because I assume most people handling mail will need to smallest details and it would just be very annoying if local mailmen had to skip over country and city names every time before reaching the bit they actually need.

Re: Palindrome Day 20200202

#66

Post by mcv »

geocrasher wrote: post #28

This post would not be complete without The Ballad of Palindrome by Riders In The Sky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzvQEstC03o A Spaghetti Western style story, starring your hero, Palindrome.

Don't forget Bob, by Weird Al Yankovic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfIikFnvuI

Re: Palindrome Day 20200202

#67

Post by susam »

philshem wrote: post #51
susam wrote: post #13

The nice thing about today's date, 2020-02-02, is that it is palindrome in three date formats: YYYYMMDD, DDMMYYYY, and MMDDYYYY. This should probably be called "Universal Palindrome Day" because it is a palindrome irrespective of the endianness (big, little, or middle) that is used in various countries. Here is the list of all such dates until the year 9999: 0101-10-10 1010-01-01 1111-11-11 2020-02-02 2121-12-12 3030…

From another comment on this thread > 20300302, 20400402, etc https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22214936

They are not universally palindromic.

For example, 2030-03-02 (yyyy-mm-dd) when written as 02-03-2030 (dd-mm-yyyy) is not a palindrome.

All dates in the list I have provided are universally palandromic, i.e., they are palindromes irrespective of the endianness (big, little, or middle) used to represent them.

Re: Palindrome Day 20200202

#69

Post by gorgoiler »

skrebbel wrote: post #35
susam wrote: post #13

The nice thing about today's date, 2020-02-02, is that it is palindrome in three date formats: YYYYMMDD, DDMMYYYY, and MMDDYYYY. This should probably be called "Universal Palindrome Day" because it is a palindrome irrespective of the endianness (big, little, or middle) that is used in various countries. Here is the list of all such dates until the year 9999: 0101-10-10 1010-01-01 1111-11-11 2020-02-02 2121-12-12 3030…

I love the term "middle endianness" and how clearly it highlights how nuts the American date notation is. EDIT: fwiw, in my native language, most numbers from 100 and 1000 are pronounced middle endian, so I'm not complaining.

Just as with inches, feet, and pounds the system works better in practical real world conversation than it does in more formal language.

“When’s your birthday? 10/23. When are we going to Ma’s? 11/19 thru 11/29. When do you go back into therapy? 12/8.”

Re: Palindrome Day 20200202

#70

Post by thaumasiotes »

gmac wrote: post #63
thaumasiotes wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The American date notation is simply a direct reflection of the spoken language. We say "February second, 2020" and we write "2/2/2020". (Contra the root comment, I can't agree that 2/2/2020 is a palindrome.) I don't see this as being crazy or even unusual. When order matters, you invariably want big-endian notation, which is why that notation is acceptable everywhere regardless of the usual native notation. But by t…

Chicken and egg. I (in British English) say the second of February.

I would agree that there's influence in both directions between the written pattern and the usual manner of speech. All I'm saying here is that there's nothing surprising about the written pattern matching the usual manner of speech. That is the primary purpose of writing; it's weirder for the writing not to match the speech. (Although certainly not unheard of; it is the norm in e.g. Chinese.)
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