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As long as they will be things like national pride, country specific formats, as dumb as they may be, will not disappear.
It will probably take decades to get rid of mm/dd/yyyy (which, while I understand the write-it-as-you-speak-it, has overall more disadvantages than advantages)
It will take centuries to settle for imperial or metric ( I prefer metric because more straight forward to me, but I don't care as long as we settle for something)
Flying cars is probably the only way of getting everybody to use the same side of the road for driving, and I am not even convinced about that. Maybe this will not be an issue anymore with autonomous driving.( You would not imagine what a waste of resources and time developing a left hand drive and right hand drive version of a car is).
This, as well as many other things, would have been solved a long time ago if people had common sense. But ...
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Rage wrote: You would not imagine what a waste of resources and time developing a left hand drive and right hand drive version of a car is
The car needs to be able to do both; and it should know where to switch. There's people coming from England using the canal; if their cars only can drive left, you'd get very dangerous holidays and visits.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Quote: write-it-as-you-speak-it
What about the 4th of July? Were Americans saying dd/mm/yyyy before but switched at some point, but "the 4th of July" stayed as is?
Also it doesn't really make sense to me to start with month, then day, then year. Either go from less specific to more or the other way around, but don't mix them up.
What time is it? It's 7 minutes, 35 seconds, 4 hours.
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Riz Thon wrote: it doesn't really make sense to me to start with month, then day, then year
Me neither, but the write it as you speak was the argument brought here last time this was raised as a point in the Lounge
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But today is 07/04/2021 - It says so on my task bar. Not a celebration?
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My currente IDE:
--------------- Build Succeeded: 04/06/2021 11:39:48 ---------------
"In testa che avete, Signor di Ceprano?"
-- Rigoletto
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I've been using "yyyy/mm/dd" for years, unless specifically told not to by my employer (which happens more often than you'd think).
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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#realJSOP wrote: I've been using "yyyy/mm/dd" for years, unless specifically told not to by my employer (which happens more often than you'd think).
Same here. Unfortunately Duhsigners, ProderpOwners, and PointygramManagers live in a reality distortion field where everyone uses the same date format they do. At least those nitwits have no control over the backend, so it's DateTimeOffsets everywhere until the presentation code at least.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
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US method mirrors how it is said when spoken.
We don't say "the sixth or April"; we say "April sixth" - and ergo, that is how we write it. How do you normally say that in Canada (for those parts that have both day and night). Even done numerically, only, we follow the spoken word. (both version put the year in the rear). In other languages they do say things like 'ersten Mai" - that's their problem and their way - I didn't bitch to them about changing the arse-backwards word order. That's their problem.
Now, for the "Euro" version - it sorts like shyte . . . worse than the US version sorts, and that a turd and a half. The year should go first, then the month, then the day - a four-digit year, at that, lest, for example, something just over a century old be classified as very current.
So that's that. I was going to use all-caps so the forgoing instructive blurb is taken and accepted as order that must be obeyed, but, feeling generous this morning I'll let you spend a bit more time adapting to before, well, THE SHIFT-LOCK.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I hear that argument a lot ("we say it like...", and I hear "4th of July" a lot, too. If you say "July 4th" or "4th of July" then both are unambiguous. The point is that if you said "7/4" or "4/7" there's ambiguity for the rest of the world.
My point is: avoiding ambiguity is pitifully easy in this case.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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"Fourth of July" is a bad example. We don't normally swap in a holiday name in place of the date. Using your date, however, the date, when fully enunciated, is "July Fourth Seventeen Seventy Six" and the reverse is rarely if used at all.
The ambiguity however is in date formatting for non-technical usage (else, YYYYMMDD). That being said, the ambiguity would really exist in a local wherein the common idiom is in one order and the written version reverses that order. Jumping on the bandwagon to accommodate languages that use a reverse word order - why ? There is no ambiguity here - except for the (in our point of view) those who do it backwards elsewhere.
I haven't spent enough time in Canada to know the common speech version. Perhaps this written format is a manifestation of yet another concession to Quebec ?
What could be less ambiguous than to write something the same way it is said?
We are on the proper side of the Atlantic - the "New World". Let the old world continue to fester in their traditions and take a fresh breath!
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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W∴ Balboos, GHB wrote: We are on the proper side of the Atlantic - the "New World". Let the old world continue to fester in their traditions and take a fresh breath!
I draw your attention to the fact that the Monroe Doctrine appears to have lapsed.
As long as nations in the "New World" and the "Old World" trade, there will be a need for agreed weights and measures and agreed methods of representing them. In most modern languages*, units are typically written in decreasing order of size (5 dollars and 21 cents = $5.21; 4 pounds, 3 shillings, and 9 pence = £4 3s 9d; 5 yards, 2 feet, and 4 inches = 5yd 2' 4"), the only exception being time. This alone makes the non-ISO 8601 formats suspect.
* I'm told that in Arabic numbers are written from the digits up - one and twenty and three hundred.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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First problem to address: French - cannot count to seventy in any rational manner. Arabic looks good at that point. Besides, aren't we taught arithmetic operations least-to-most significant digits?
The unit argument you use would be good except for one thing: Dates are Labels ! For most common usage, I haven't heard about anyone in any date format using fractional months (for example). I mean, really, months vary in length and the full day labels include one of seven flavors. For that matter, the date is different in different parts of the globe (Greenwich is not the center of the universe). Noon happens when the sun's high.
But perhaps your current date is April 63/4, 2021 or 6.75 April 2021 ?
(or 25 Nisan 5781)
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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W∴ Balboos, GHB wrote: (or 25 Nisan 5781)
24 Μάρτιος, 7529 έτος κόσμου 
Seriously, either arrangement - little-endian ([day fraction], day, month, year) or big-endian (year, month, day, [day fraction]) would be OK. What I object to is the "mixed-endian" representation used in the US. It is inconsistent with the way we (including the USians) represent all other measurements.
[day fraction] stands for any method of representing a day fraction, whether a [decimal fraction], [hour, minute, second], or [second, minute, hour].
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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I shall repeat: it is not a measurement - it is a label.
Day number, perhaps as a fraction of the year - that is a measurement. Time of day, too.
Date? Nope.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Time is a label, and not a measurement?
It is an imperfect measurement since days of old.
Bastard Programmer from Hell
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Notable is that in Japan they use the big endian format for Addresses.
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You are on the Left (not proper) side of the Atlantic but still drive on the wrong side of the road.
The "old" world civilisation clearly came before the "new" world civilization so should take precedence. Obviously when one says "4th of July, 1775" then the date should be 04/07/1775, as you USians say, duh!
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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� Forogar � wrote: The "old" world civilisation clearly came before the "new" world civilization so should take precedence.
If this were consistently applied, we would today be in year 10279 of Xyzzy the Volcano Goddess, or some such. The question before the group is standardization; given that we must communicate and trade globally, it must be possible to unambiguously express numerical values such as dates.
My personal preference is that all values be expressed in "big-endian" unit format - from largest unit to smallest. "little endian" would also be acceptable. What I object to is the USian special case of "middle-endian" for dates, and no other values.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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� Forogar � wrote: ou are on the Left (not proper) side of the Atlantic but still drive on the wrong side of the road.
As usual, completely wrong on all counts.
Old coming first has precedence? Well, that makes you a charter member of Luddites, United. The "Old World" is called just that for a reason: tired old inbred monarchies, dying languages (like French), class-based society and food I'd not give to a stray dog, etc.
And the resistance to change - as in a little diversity to the gene pool (q.v., UK Royal Family)? Well, according to the news reports, Oprah apparently got a first-person account of how the Old World fixes things. I guess they want to go back to ugly.
I mean, really. The whole damn place is shot.
Begs the question: why did you sample lots of Europe and settle in Maryland? Probably to feast the Big Macs!
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Quote: Probably to feast the Big Macs!
That's never going to happen. McDonald's was a nice little burger place until the corporate criminal got involved and this is probably a metaphor for all that is wrong with the US today.
However, since politics is frowned upon here I will avoid any further escalation of your deluded ranting! 
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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I'll repeat a question for you:
You seemed to have traveled and lived in various locations in Far-Western-Asia (a/k/a Europe) and yet now you have settled down to live in Maryland, USA. But just about all of your posts that say anything about the USA are negative. WTF do you stay?
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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There lies the big misconception most people have. The reality is that McDonald's is a real estate investment company, that just happens to also sell burgers on their properties.
Money makes the world go round ... but documentation moves the money.
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W∴ Balboos, GHB wrote: tired old inbred monarchies,
Yup, true.
W∴ Balboos, GHB wrote: dying languages (like French)
Not a monarchy, nor a dying language. Don't forget that lots of Afrikans speak French, as do some carribean parts.
W∴ Balboos, GHB wrote: Oprah apparently got a first-person account of how the Old World fixes things. I guess they want to go back to ugly.
I mean, really. The whole damn place is shot.
I don't watch Oprah, no idea what you talking about. And yes; things getting ugly, we not supposed to be united like the US is. I hope we reverse that mistake soon, but don't expect that to happen; too many paychecks depend on unity.
W∴ Balboos, GHB wrote: Begs the question: why did you sample lots of Europe and settle in Maryland?
All of the US gives you a taste of Europe. Americans were built of European rejects. Prisoners and the like. The "new world" is one of criminals of the old one.
That's just history. Documented history.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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French = dying language. They wouldn't need to basically have language police and fine publsihers/etc. for using a non-french word if the french equivalent exists. They know it peaked perhaps a century ago (like par avion for air mail when that existed) - but it's done. Replace by a language that accepts the diversity of its users and grows and enriches itself. (care to guess which one?).
I don't watch Oprah but it was all over the news and everyplace else how their (former) prince (now living in California) was admonished about having children with his wife - they might not be white enough.
Your mixing the US with Australia in terms of a target for criminals. The US was settled by, all things considered, opportunists.
Some because they were unwelcome in Europe (like the Pilgrims), others because they had no future in Europe (class systems, monarchies - no chance at land of ones own). Some were indentured servants (enslaved whites because of debt). My Grandfather, escaping that tired old "continent" and entering as an illegal alien through Canada. Others brought, in later generations, as slaves. Some may have committed actual crimes (I'd bet on it) - and others, their crime was being the wrong religion. Quite a mixed multitude. Australia, being basically as far from England as you can get, was a great place to get rid of undesirables.
Along the way, as often as not, those already here thought it in their interest to not let anyone else in that didn't meet their standards (typically white/protestants).
Most importantly - for a long time - no long standing traditions to block progress !
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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