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Freedom Clock

domsson.github.io

11–20 of 189 posts

Re: Freedom Clock

#12
post #3

I get it, it's really annoying that there are different formats. In fact I once nerfed a small database by importing a bunch dates from a csv in the wrong format. But honestly both formats (M/D/Y and D/M/Y) are wrong, as clear from the clock example: dates should be big-endian; Y/M/D.

Slash means "of". D/M/Y or Y-M-D.

Hell, the weird American "write it like you say it month dayeth of year" would be fine if they didn't use slashes. Sure it doesn't sort well but at least it wouldn't be ambiguous. Nobody would be confused if today was written 03-25/2023.

Re: Freedom Clock

#14
the least ambiguous format i know for human-facing dates:

  %d %b %Y
so today is 25 Mar 2023.

not coincidentally, this format is in common use in the american military. Occasionally my use of it has had people ask me where i served, though i never have.

Re: Freedom Clock

#15
post #12
post #3

I get it, it's really annoying that there are different formats. In fact I once nerfed a small database by importing a bunch dates from a csv in the wrong format. But honestly both formats (M/D/Y and D/M/Y) are wrong, as clear from the clock example: dates should be big-endian; Y/M/D.

Slash means "of". D/M/Y or Y-M-D. Hell, the weird American "write it like you say it month dayeth of year" would be fine if they didn't use slashes. Sure it doesn't sort well but at least it wouldn't be ambiguous. Nobody would be confused if today was written 03-25/2023.

Slash is just a separator. We're weird here in the US.

Re: Freedom Clock

#16
Europeans have access to multiple countries, cultures, and languages, yet still complain about imperial units, date formats, "soccer," SMS, and all of the many other ways in which the United States differs. It's another country. Stop being so insular.

Re: Freedom Clock

#17
post #3

I get it, it's really annoying that there are different formats. In fact I once nerfed a small database by importing a bunch dates from a csv in the wrong format. But honestly both formats (M/D/Y and D/M/Y) are wrong, as clear from the clock example: dates should be big-endian; Y/M/D.

They are both "wrong" compared to big-endian, but M/D/Y is by far the least logical of the three formats.

M/D/Y should never be a default for any software without the user explicitly selecting it or specifying their country.

Re: Freedom Clock

#19

the least ambiguous format i know for human-facing dates: %d %b %Y so today is 25 Mar 2023. not coincidentally, this format is in common use in the american military. Occasionally my use of it has had people ask me where i served, though i never have.

This is a good example of why we have standards for dates. Your example is wrong for multiple reasons:

* You don't specify the year and the time zone

* ISO 8601 and RFC 3339 are better when it comes to naming files

* It's not a valid date in the healthcare industry where the month must be in uppercase letters like "25 MAR 2023"

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