There's an eleventh one, which should probably be given number zero for being top priority: read this essay and live by it: Lesson Zero: Don't Be A Sharecropper: http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/07/12/WebsThePla...
No, thanks.
Lessons for uncultured web developers
11–20 of 114 posts
Re: Lessons for uncultured web developers
#12I love the fact that Indonesians only seem to use Firefox or Chrome. The rest of the world is playing catch-up.
Not so uncultured ;)
Re: Lessons for uncultured web developers
#13Good list, and interesting how at least half of the points are about localisation/internationalization. The date point was good I find that one very annoying. The easiest way to work it out on forums is usually to look at the previous post and see what number goes down (day). I didn't realise the mm/dd format was only officially used in two countries. I've never understood why it's use at all, it makes much more sens…
As with most internationalization problems, blame the British. We used this middle-endian format around the time we colonised North America (I guess it does kind of make sense when you're reading aloud). The USA standardised on it, whereas most of the rest of the world (including Britain) moved on to a more logical format. See also: power plugs. The British came up with a new British Standard plug seemingly every few…
Indeed. Even going 50 years back, we had different plugs for different parts of the UK. I remember my grandmother plugging stuff into her light fitting as well with an adapter. I'm sure stuff caught fire a lot then.
Regarding dates, I think yyyy-mm-dd makes sense (big endian dates) as you can sort naturally.
Re: Lessons for uncultured web developers
#14Pretty cool list. Small nit pick though:
> In the UK, it’s all about .uk.
I very rarely see .uk domains, most at .co.uk
Re: Lessons for uncultured web developers
#15Why is nobody using the ISO format for dates? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601 yyyy-mm-dd? Another benefit is that it sorts correctly in the file explorers (I used to name my photo folders like that...). Coming from a country where we typically do dd/mm I can never remember what the English standard is. I've taken to always writing the name of the month to be sure. Also, can the huge lead of the iPhone still be…
> Why is nobody using the ISO format for dates?
Sweden uses it. In informal situations you often see d/m but whenever a year is present it's always y-m-d. In fact people identify themselves using this format as part of the national ID numbers that are used for everything from healthcare to newspaper subscriptions.
Re: Lessons for uncultured web developers
#16Why is nobody using the ISO format for dates? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601 yyyy-mm-dd? Another benefit is that it sorts correctly in the file explorers (I used to name my photo folders like that...). Coming from a country where we typically do dd/mm I can never remember what the English standard is. I've taken to always writing the name of the month to be sure. Also, can the huge lead of the iPhone still be…
> Why is nobody using the ISO format for dates? Sweden uses it. In informal situations you often see d/m but whenever a year is present it's always y-m-d. In fact people identify themselves using this format as part of the national ID numbers that are used for everything from healthcare to newspaper subscriptions.
In Sweden I've seen d/m-yy or d/m-yyyy used when a year is present, and I still use it when signing contracts, though I am starting to write the first letters of the month instead.
Re: Lessons for uncultured web developers
#17Good list, and interesting how at least half of the points are about localisation/internationalization. The date point was good I find that one very annoying. The easiest way to work it out on forums is usually to look at the previous post and see what number goes down (day). I didn't realise the mm/dd format was only officially used in two countries. I've never understood why it's use at all, it makes much more sens…
> Is there a reason mm/dd was chosen in the US
I don't know which came first, but it agrees with the way we say it out loud. "Today is September tenth." So, maybe that's why?
And I think in other countries, it's said the other way around, right? "Today is the tenth of September?" That would actually be okay sounding in the U.S., too, though a little uncommon. Can you say "Today is tenth September"? That sounds very weird to me.
Re: Lessons for uncultured web developers
#18Good post. The only question is: are these developers "uncultured" or simply focusing on potential paying customers?
Re: Lessons for uncultured web developers
#19There's an eleventh one, which should probably be given number zero for being top priority: read this essay and live by it: Lesson Zero: Don't Be A Sharecropper: http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/07/12/WebsThePla...
How is this at all relevant to the linked article?
Re: Lessons for uncultured web developers
#20Pretty cool list. Small nit pick though: > In the UK, it’s all about .uk. I very rarely see .uk domains, most at .co.uk
I'm perhaps an odd case, because I work in academia in the area of government policy on health, but on a day-in day-out basis I see .nhs.uk, .gov.uk, .ac.uk, .org.uk and the occasional .mod.uk. As the parent of two toddlers, I'm starting to look at more and more .sch.uk and in my IT work I quite often see .net.uk and .nic.uk addresses.