Date format

[andrewjoy]

One way is big-endian thats best for computers
one way is little-endian thats best for human readable

who the fuck had ever heared of middle-endian, thats just stupid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness#Middle-endian

thats a hack to get 32 bits into a 16 bit machine that does not count .

Its also DEC and DEC are assholes because i cannot find a VT100 in the UK

[7bit]

European format:dd/mm/yyyy 11/9/2001
North American format: mm/dd/yyyy 9/11/2001

How do you usually say it in Europ and north America respectively? 11th of September 2001 or September 11th 2001?



EDIT:
This triviality has been causing numerous troubles, especially in the field of E-mail exchanges among international corporations, really annoying...

In China/Japan, we use yyyy/mm/dd format in both written and spoken language which is not only traditional but also consistent and more logical, and it happens to be compliant with ISO8601( a commandatory international standard applied when important documents need to be signed)

If in doubt, use ISO-notation:
2017-03-09


Notations like 2017/03/09* or 17/03/09** are even worse than US-format.

Spoiler:

*) 17 March 2009
**) 3 Quindecember 2009

[codemonkeymike]

As an American I find our way of writing dates hard to understand. I generally write dates as "day 'month name' year" like "10 March 2017". Quick story on this, I would write all my dates in this format when I worked for this company which contracted for the publicly owned utilities and at some point a big wig noticed that there were dozens of official documents with the date in the format which I was writing and almost had a conniption. Apparently if the date is not in a certain format it opens you up to legal issues. Needless to say I did not work there for long.

[Mr.Nobody]

As an American I find our way of writing dates hard to understand. I generally write dates as "day 'month name' year" like "10 March 2017". Quick story on this, I would write all my dates in this format when I worked for this company which contracted for the publicly owned utilities and at some point a big wig noticed that there were dozens of official documents with the date in the format which I was writing and almost had a conniption. Apparently if the date is not in a certain format it opens you up to legal issues. Needless to say I did not work there for long.

You made the right decision, if a company threats you on a travial thing like this with legal process, it's a comany run by bullies for sure...

BTW, in real life, how you guys over there prefer to say the date? March the 10th 2017?

[mr_a500]

The official Canadian short date format is YYYY-MM-DD and that's what I've always used, but because most Canadian businesses have been bought out (and/or destroyed) by Americans, we're often forced to use the annoying American format. American businesses generally don't give a shit about Canada and force their crap on us all the time without a second thought.

(Default OS languages and spell checkers are "North American English". There is no such thing. They mean "American English". Somehow, they don't know that we use "Canadian English" (or proper English) up here. And what the hell is a "fluid ounce"?? We use metric here! Uh oh... I'm starting to rant. )

[Findecanor]

American businesses generally don't give a shit about Canada and force their crap on us all the time without a second thought.

Off-topic: You write "America" to mean the country south of the border. I wonder, when did Canadians start doing that?

Over here in Europe, when we say "America" we talk about the continent, not to a specific nation... although the different use of the word has begun to creep in into reporting etc.
In latin-american countries, "America" also refers to the continent, not to a specific nation.

[scottc]

American businesses generally don't give a shit about Canada and force their crap on us all the time without a second thought.

Over here in Europe, when we say "America" we talk about the continent, not to a specific nation...

In my experience, saying "America" to mean "the USA" is much more common in Ireland.

[vometia]

As an English type, I'm also familiar with America being synonymous with the US. It seems that other bits are generally referred to by their specific names, and in terms of continents its always North America/South America/The Americas.

Where dates are concerned, the computing type in me prefers ISO dates because they're easier to sort but other than that I prefer some version of day, month, year, whether it's DD/MM/YYY, DD-MMM-YYYY or written out in full. American dates totally confuse me, especially with the habit of using two digit years, so 01/02/03 could mean many things.

And where measures are concerned, as I mentioned elsewhere, I was brought up in '70s England so I have a mish-mash of imperial and metric. I guess I see nothing wrong with measuring temperature in centigrade and distance in miles, and that there's 25.4 mm to the inch. Though I still have to work out how many miles I get to the litre.

And random irritation is when I see "select your flag to choose your language" and English gets a US flag. And then I'm told I don't actually speak English in spite of being English (yeah, been told that, also been told that I don't spell properly and so on <_< )

[mr_a500]

Over here in Europe, when we say "America" we talk about the continent, not to a specific nation... although the different use of the word has begun to creep in into reporting etc.
In latin-american countries, "America" also refers to the continent, not to a specific nation.

See, that's how I always know when I'm talking to a European. I've had to explain this more times than I can count. Over here, the continent is always "North America" or "South America", never just America. Over here, "America" always refers to United States and an "American" is a person from United States. You can't ever call a Canadian an "American". (... not unless you want a punch in the face )

[Daniel Beardsmore]

As a Briton (and soon to be ex-European!) "America" is the United States. I've never had the same hang-up over this that some people seem to have.

The real challenge is to devise a measurements system in base 10 that provides both practical dimensions and scalable mathematics. Imperial's hopeless inconsistency is a nightmare (up there with grammatical gender), but metric is a waste of time as it has so few useful quantities. These useful quantities in Imperial only work because of that inconsistency: the ability to divide up units into whatever makes the most sense (3 feet/yard, 12 inches/foot etc). However, things like the immemorable number of feet in a mile should be scrapped and replaced with a sane number. I figure that we should also have 12 pounds/stone, since weight is more arbitrary than visual dimensions.

Temperature is even harder, as it teaches you how finicky human life is. Our comfortable temperature range, from too cold to too hot, is compressed into such a tiny range of figures in whatever scale you use, that maybe we would be better off using milligrade, where 1000°M would be the boiling point of water. That way, we can assign very distinct numbers to each level of "too cold" and "too hot". (I don't think milligrade would work, as it wouldn't itself give the nice figures — something like steps of ten would be nice, with the range of 20–40°C spanning maybe 100 in nice steps of 10.)

The use of $MONTH $DAY (e.g. June the 10th) in Britain is more common than it should be, and I don't know if this just an Americanism or whether I just falsely believed that there's a US/UK distinction there. That however seems to be the basis of M/D/Y, that you write it the way it's pronounced, and as such, it makes sense. Writing June [the] 10th, 2017 as 10/6/2017 would be wrong, as then you'd read it back as "October [the] 6th, 2017". I don't find M/D/Y offensive, just frustratingly ambiguous to a computer.

[mr_a500]

American dates totally confuse me, especially with the habit of using two digit years, so 01/02/03 could mean many things.

Oh yes, this really annoys the hell out of me. Year should ALWAYS be four digits. Otherwise food expiry dates are bloody hard to decipher. We get products from Europe using DD/MM/YY or YY/MM/DD or even the American way, MM/DD/YY. It's easier now that the year is > 12, but why can't they always use 4 digits? It's common sense. Or they could at least put a letter over the numbers so you know what format they're using.

[vometia]

The real challenge is to devise a measurements system in base 10 that provides both practical dimensions and scalable mathematics. Imperial's hopeless inconsistency is a nightmare (up there with grammatical gender), but metric is a waste of time as it has so few useful quantities. These useful quantities in Imperial only work because of that inconsistency: the ability to divide up units into whatever makes the most sense (3 feet/yard, 12 inches/foot etc). However, things like the immemorable number of feet in a mile should be scrapped and replaced with a sane number. I figure that we should also have 12 pounds/stone, since weight is more arbitrary than visual dimensions.

I think this is one of the reasons why so many people stick to imperial: it seems much easier to visualise an inch, a foot, a stone than a cm, a metre or a kilogram. It could be argued that's simply a matter of familiarisation but I think there's more to it than that.

But I certainly agree about feet-per-mile which I have never been able to remember, and end up attempting to work out 12-inches-to-the-foot, 40-inches-to-the-metre, 1,600-metres-to-the-mile which is all sorts of awesome.

The use of $MONTH $DAY (e.g. June the 10th) in Britain is more common than it should be, and I don't know if this just an Americanism or whether I just falsely believed that there's a US/UK distinction there. That however seems to be the basis of M/D/Y, that you write it the way it's pronounced, and as such, it makes sense. Writing June [the] 10th, 2017 as 10/6/2017 would be wrong, as then you'd read it back as "October [the] 6th, 2017". I don't find M/D/Y offensive, just frustratingly ambiguous to a computer.

I've also wondered about the not infrequent use of "month, the day" in the UK. I don't know if that's an Americanism, or "the way things were", or just a random stylistic choice. I do remember a particularly militant American-is-the-only-way saying they had never heard the form "the date of month" and was just left thinking "so you've never heard of The Fourth of July, then?"

Oh yes, this really annoys the hell out of me. Year should ALWAYS be four digits. Otherwise food expiry dates are bloody hard to decipher. We get products from Europe using DD/MM/YY or YY/MM/DD or even the American way, MM/DD/YY. It's easier now that the year is > 12, but why can't they always use 4 digits? It's common sense. Or they could at least put a letter over the numbers so you know what format they're using.

I usually work around it by assuming if it's a two-digit year, it's probably an American-formatted date, but obviously that's quite error-prone. There were historical reasons and I suspect we're all familiar with the ludicrous storage costs in times past, but I think it's time we moved on!

I'm also aware that I may be coming off as slightly anti-American which I would hate as I'm actually a bit of an Americaphile in some regards and both parents have American ancestry. I'm just surly and moody.

[mr_a500]

I'm also aware that I may be coming off as slightly anti-American which I would hate as I'm actually a bit of an Americaphile in some regards and both parents have American ancestry. I'm just surly and moody.

You're surly? I'm imagining you like this:

surly.jpg

Canadians usually come off as anti-American. That's how we define ourselves. We're a group of people with not much in common except our desire not to be Americans.

Plus we're usually annoyed that we keep getting stepped on by a country that barely knows we exist.

[XMIT]

Wow this is a blast from the past, welcome back mr_a500!

[mr_a500]

Thanks. I'm here for a limited time only! (...then I have to go back to the insane asylum before they find out I escaped)

[seebart]

Thanks. I'm here for a limited time only! (...then I have to go back to the insane asylum before they find out I escaped)

Ahh that explains a lot.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I think this is one of the reasons why so many people stick to imperial: it seems much easier to visualise an inch, a foot, a stone than a cm, a metre or a kilogram. It could be argued that's simply a matter of familiarisation but I think there's more to it than that.

Some things I can remember, including long part numbers like "SKCCAF002A", but Imperial x-into-y has never stuck with me. I wasn't quite alive in the 70s, so having been officially taught only metric all my life is the main reason.

Dates are weird all around — especially when you involve Japan and Taiwan!

[Mr.Nobody]

@mr_a500
Maybe they do the two-digit shit on purpose to confuse us.

@Vometia
It's a matter of familiarization I think, I have no trouble with metric systems, even you tell me 0.8 metre or 0.55 Km I still know how long/far it represents immediately, but if you say a gallon, an ounce, I am completely at sea...however I know 1 mile is approximately 1.5 KM and a inch is about 2.5 CM that's about 1/4th of 10 cm in length, a foot is about 1/3rd of a metre. 99.99% Chinese people only recognize metric system that's how everybody's taught in school, I know a little imperial because I use English a lot, I have to know some, a pound is about 450 grams...hey! not bad for a silly Chinese HAHA...

@Daniel Beardsmore
You mean the province Taiwan not the "country" Taiwan right. ALL CHINESE PEOPLE SHOULD UNITE TOGETHER, if anyone wants to separate himself from the rest of his countrymen to feel "special" well, take a look at Europe, you will know how important it is to remain united.

*** ***
What's more confusing? English.
Collective nouns use single verb right? The staff/faculty/crew IS evacuated, then why the hell the personnel ARE evacuated, why things have to be so inconsistent?

If a kid can be naughtier than others, then why a kid couldn' t be dociler than others, what, there's no dociler docilest?

Shit like this pisses me off, it simply doesn't make sense.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Who ever claimed that the English language made any sense? It's an awful mess.

[Mr.Nobody]

AVGN haha...

[Chyros]

Haha, that's funny, his opening example of the word "review" happened to me too at some point xD .

[vometia]

You're surly? I'm imagining you like this:

Yeah, pretty much. Considering my avatar picture was about my best attempt at a smile...

Some things I can remember, including long part numbers like "SKCCAF002A", but Imperial x-into-y has never stuck with me. I wasn't quite alive in the 70s, so having been officially taught only metric all my life is the main reason.

Oh yeah, don't get me wrong, I was only ever taught metric, it's just that nobody used it in everyday life. And I'm old enough to have used pre-decimalisation money, but young enough to not remember it, so it remains a bit of a mystery as to how anybody could work anything out.

Who ever claimed that the English language made any sense? It's an awful mess.

It certainly is. Even considering its various roots and the randomness with which they're been muddled together, it's still inconsistent and weird. I kinda like it that way though, at least when it isn't annoying me too much.

[mr_a500]

You're surly? I'm imagining you like this:

Yeah, pretty much. Considering my avatar picture was about my best attempt at a smile...

I'm not smiling in my avatar either. I don't smile much. In fact, I think my facial muscles have atrophied from lack of smiling.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Oh yeah, don't get me wrong, I was only ever taught metric, it's just that nobody used it in everyday life. And I'm old enough to have used pre-decimalisation money, but young enough to not remember it, so it remains a bit of a mystery as to how anybody could work anything out.

At primary school, we had metre sticks (blue plastic jobbies), and they were huge, so I still think of a metre as being around the same size as me. I've never totally adjusted to the idea that the metre shrinks as you age. No doubt before too long it will start getting bigger again.

[andrewjoy]

Who ever claimed that the English language made any sense? It's an awful mess.

Its a mess indeed. But it is a very good descriptive languages for things like tech, programming and science, that and how widely used it is makes it the best language.

[Chyros]

Who ever claimed that the English language made any sense? It's an awful mess.

Its a mess indeed. But it is a very good descriptive languages for things like tech, programming and science, that and how widely used it is makes it the best language.

It's also probably the easiest languange in the world.

[codemonkeymike]

I found Spanish to be incredibly easy compared to some other languages I tried to learn (German, Italian, Portuguese). Most things make sense except the sentence structure is different to English, which may or may not be a good thing. (Liken instead of saying "The blue car" you say "El coche azul" noun before adjective)

[Mr.Nobody]

If history could be altered just a little bit, Spanish could have been the international language today...then we wouldn't have to speak English, which is not phonetic and has too many randoms...

[Chyros]

The same could be said for German tbh.

[seebart]

English is a much much "easier" language than German.