Dates
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So today is 20th of October 2009. In UK format that is 20/10/2009. Kinda makes sense right, smallest to biggest. Logical. In US format it's 10/20/2009. Now to me that's totally illogical. Why would you do that. Can any Americans explain to me why this makes sense. (lets try to forget about patriotism). I don't understand why it would ever be useful to break the logical order. It's like writing the time in HH:SS:MM. [As a developer I obviously recognise that the superior format is neither of the above but is in fact YYYY-MM-DD as it maintains correct sort order and digit significance]
Simon
Simon, In the UK, for speed limits you still use mph, right? Or have you changed to kmph now?
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
My latest book : C++/CLI in Action / Amazon.com link -
You should try living in Canada where officially it's dd/mm/yy, but practically, because of that country next door, it's sometimes mm/dd/yy. Yet the locals never get confused! I, on the other hand, have no idea. None. And don't get me started about their "Best Before" dates on food. They only use 2 letters for months, so you can have 11JU09. Is that June or July? Are you feeling lucky, punk?
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
Chris Maunder wrote:
They only use 2 letters for months, so you can have 11JU09
That's incredible.
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Only if you have a very small head! I have only previously heard of a 10 Gallon Hat.
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
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Interesting. I assume you are referring to the right-to-left writing of their language. I would expect a format entered in as yyyy-mm-dd would appear as "dd-mm-yyyy" in the RTL environment, and I would expect the sorting algorithm to adhere to the RTL option when considering digit significance, so I would expect it still to work correctly. Obviously I have no real idea what I am talking about so please ignore me.
Simon
I speak a little Arabic. Numbers in Arabic are written like ours left-to-right , even when "Arabic arabic" numerals are used and all the other writing is left to right. The effect when you read it inline is weird as you have to reverse direction whilst reading, like this: The value of PI 395141.3 to six decimal places.
CCC solved so far: 2 (including a Hard One!)
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Simon, In the UK, for speed limits you still use mph, right? Or have you changed to kmph now?
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
My latest book : C++/CLI in Action / Amazon.com link -
Nishant Sivakumar wrote:
In the UK, for speed limits you still use mph
MPH obviously, why would we want to use some foreign measurement that nobody understands? ;)
Richard MacCutchan wrote:
MPH obviously, why would we want to use some foreign measurement that nobody understands?
:-) Wouldn't this same thought process apply to mm-dd-yyyy too? Everyone here understands it, so why change it!
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
My latest book : C++/CLI in Action / Amazon.com link -
So today is 20th of October 2009. In UK format that is 20/10/2009. Kinda makes sense right, smallest to biggest. Logical. In US format it's 10/20/2009. Now to me that's totally illogical. Why would you do that. Can any Americans explain to me why this makes sense. (lets try to forget about patriotism). I don't understand why it would ever be useful to break the logical order. It's like writing the time in HH:SS:MM. [As a developer I obviously recognise that the superior format is neither of the above but is in fact YYYY-MM-DD as it maintains correct sort order and digit significance]
Simon
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Richard MacCutchan wrote:
MPH obviously, why would we want to use some foreign measurement that nobody understands?
:-) Wouldn't this same thought process apply to mm-dd-yyyy too? Everyone here understands it, so why change it!
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
My latest book : C++/CLI in Action / Amazon.com link -
If memory serves the US Navy uses dd-mm-yyyy (I will happily sit corrected).
The one navy format I'm familiar with makes all the other formats we've been arguing about seem brilliant. DDHHMMZ MMM YY which turns this 7/5/2005 9:20:22 AM into this 050920Z JUL 05 :omg: :wtf: crappy cite but I don't feel like finding a nicer one.[^]
The latest nation. Procrastination.
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You should try living in Canada where officially it's dd/mm/yy, but practically, because of that country next door, it's sometimes mm/dd/yy. Yet the locals never get confused! I, on the other hand, have no idea. None. And don't get me started about their "Best Before" dates on food. They only use 2 letters for months, so you can have 11JU09. Is that June or July? Are you feeling lucky, punk?
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
We only put "Best Before Dates" on food products for foreigners. And the dates are the result of a random number generator anyway, so why even bother with reading them, let alone to consider them to have some practical meaning. There's nothing like sour cream that you bought six months ago piled high on a baked potato. :)
Chris Meech I am Canadian. [heard in a local bar] In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. [Yogi Berra]
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Nishant Sivakumar wrote:
Wouldn't this same thought process apply to mm-dd-yyyy too? Everyone here understands it, so why change it!
:confused: we use dd/mm/yyyy in the UK.
Richard MacCutchan wrote:
we use dd/mm/yyyy in the UK.
I know, and the OP was asking my Americans use MM-DD-YYYY. The reason is same as why you guys use MPH :-) Clearly KMPH is superior to MPH, but you use a system you are familiar with. And while dd-mm-yyyy is a tad better than mm-dd-yyyy, yyyy-mm-dd is clearly superior to both - yet both in the UK and US, people use formats they are familiar with. What do you guys use for temperature? F or C?
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
My latest book : C++/CLI in Action / Amazon.com link -
Simon Stevens wrote:
Can any Americans explain to me why this makes sense.
Actually we do it just to screw with the Brits (and their imperial progeny). Seems to work too. ;P
Mike Mullikin wrote:
imperial progeny
I suggest you read your own history, figure out who you were trying to gain Independance from in the War of Independance (which by the way, at the time was considered a civil war) and then realise why you are all speaking English. Bl**dy colonials :-)
CCC solved so far: 2 (including a Hard One!)
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Simon Stevens wrote:
Can any Americans explain to me why this makes sense.
Actually we do it just to screw with the Brits (and their imperial progeny). Seems to work too. ;P
Mike Mullikin wrote:
Actually we do it just to screw with the Brits (and their imperial progeny). Seems to work too.
It also contributes to the welfare of the programming community. Now developers around the world can bill 2 man days to write a complex British-to-American date converter framework, including full suppport for leap years! :rolleyes:
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
My latest book : C++/CLI in Action / Amazon.com link -
Richard MacCutchan wrote:
we use dd/mm/yyyy in the UK.
I know, and the OP was asking my Americans use MM-DD-YYYY. The reason is same as why you guys use MPH :-) Clearly KMPH is superior to MPH, but you use a system you are familiar with. And while dd-mm-yyyy is a tad better than mm-dd-yyyy, yyyy-mm-dd is clearly superior to both - yet both in the UK and US, people use formats they are familiar with. What do you guys use for temperature? F or C?
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
My latest book : C++/CLI in Action / Amazon.com linkI'm still struggling from the changes in gradient signs. A gradient of 1 in 7 is easy to visualise, but 14% ? I blame the French, but then I'm English.
CCC solved so far: 2 (including a Hard One!)
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Mike Mullikin wrote:
imperial progeny
I suggest you read your own history, figure out who you were trying to gain Independance from in the War of Independance (which by the way, at the time was considered a civil war) and then realise why you are all speaking English. Bl**dy colonials :-)
CCC solved so far: 2 (including a Hard One!)
keefb wrote:
and then realise why you are all speaking English.
Not every day that someone from the UK acknowledges that the language spoken here is "English" :-)
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
My latest book : C++/CLI in Action / Amazon.com link -
Richard MacCutchan wrote:
we use dd/mm/yyyy in the UK.
I know, and the OP was asking my Americans use MM-DD-YYYY. The reason is same as why you guys use MPH :-) Clearly KMPH is superior to MPH, but you use a system you are familiar with. And while dd-mm-yyyy is a tad better than mm-dd-yyyy, yyyy-mm-dd is clearly superior to both - yet both in the UK and US, people use formats they are familiar with. What do you guys use for temperature? F or C?
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
My latest book : C++/CLI in Action / Amazon.com linkNishant Sivakumar wrote:
Clearly KMPH is superior to MPH
No, it's just a different unit of measurement.
Nishant Sivakumar wrote:
What do you guys use for temperature? F or C?
Mostly Celsius these days, although weathermen/women often quote the equivalent Fahrenheit figure as well.
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I'm still struggling from the changes in gradient signs. A gradient of 1 in 7 is easy to visualise, but 14% ? I blame the French, but then I'm English.
CCC solved so far: 2 (including a Hard One!)
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keefb wrote:
and then realise why you are all speaking English.
Not every day that someone from the UK acknowledges that the language spoken here is "English" :-)
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
My latest book : C++/CLI in Action / Amazon.com linkActually, I meant the Americans, rather than posters on CP. The English use "Bl**dy Colonials" to refer to Americans, especially when we are shocked/appalled/dismayed/joking about the antics/attitiudes of our cousins from across the pond.
CCC solved so far: 2 (including a Hard One!)
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Richard MacCutchan wrote:
we use dd/mm/yyyy in the UK.
I know, and the OP was asking my Americans use MM-DD-YYYY. The reason is same as why you guys use MPH :-) Clearly KMPH is superior to MPH, but you use a system you are familiar with. And while dd-mm-yyyy is a tad better than mm-dd-yyyy, yyyy-mm-dd is clearly superior to both - yet both in the UK and US, people use formats they are familiar with. What do you guys use for temperature? F or C?
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
My latest book : C++/CLI in Action / Amazon.com linkKelvin.
CCC solved so far: 2 (including a Hard One!)
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So today is 20th of October 2009. In UK format that is 20/10/2009. Kinda makes sense right, smallest to biggest. Logical. In US format it's 10/20/2009. Now to me that's totally illogical. Why would you do that. Can any Americans explain to me why this makes sense. (lets try to forget about patriotism). I don't understand why it would ever be useful to break the logical order. It's like writing the time in HH:SS:MM. [As a developer I obviously recognise that the superior format is neither of the above but is in fact YYYY-MM-DD as it maintains correct sort order and digit significance]
Simon
I agree their reasoning is the way it's spoken (by them). However, for clarity, YYYY-MM-DD sould always be used in applications. 1) no confusion. 2) ease of sorting by date. 3) would have prevented that !@#$% SQL Query "rewrite the query with wrong date format" bug.
"The activity of 'debugging', or removing bugs from a program, ends when people get tired of doing it, not when the bugs are removed." - "Datamation", January 15, 1984