Skip to content
  • Categories
  • Recent
  • Tags
  • Popular
  • World
  • Users
  • Groups
Skins
  • Light
  • Cerulean
  • Cosmo
  • Flatly
  • Journal
  • Litera
  • Lumen
  • Lux
  • Materia
  • Minty
  • Morph
  • Pulse
  • Sandstone
  • Simplex
  • Sketchy
  • Spacelab
  • United
  • Yeti
  • Zephyr
  • Dark
  • Cyborg
  • Darkly
  • Quartz
  • Slate
  • Solar
  • Superhero
  • Vapor

  • Default (No Skin)
  • No Skin
Collapse
Code Project
  1. Home
  2. The Lounge
  3. Only American and Swahili use mm/dd for dates

Only American and Swahili use mm/dd for dates

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved The Lounge
visual-studioquestioncsharpcollaborationhelp
104 Posts 44 Posters 0 Views 1 Watching
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • C Chris Maunder

    Oh, and Micronesia. At least according to Wikipedia. So why does pretty much every US based service that caters to a worldwide audience use mm/dd/yyyy as a date format Latest example this hour is VS team services "Access issues with Visual Studio Team Services – 5/25 – Investigating". 5/25 = 25 May. That's easy. But when I see 6/7 or 10/8 I have to manually check the site and see what culture they are based in. No one in the US (I'm guessing - apart from ex-pats) worry about this. Or are probably even aware of this issue. Everyone else in every other country is aware of this issue. Everyone in Canada manages to deal with it. And I don't know how their brains don't explode. Canada uses dd/mm/yyyy. Except when it uses mm/dd/yyyy because either it's a US based company, they are using a US based system, they are trying to be nice to their US based customers, because they just forgot to use dd/mm/yyyy or because they know it's me and so they deliberately use an ambiguous date format to do my head in. Date formats in Canada are totally and completely messed up. So: Why, in this day and age, do those in the US, when writing for an international audience, still use mm/dd/yyyy? (And I'll add another one: Why do companies in the US find it impossible to ship outside the US? It's very odd) OK, back to hitting refresh several times a second waiting for Team Services to come back online.

    cheers Chris Maunder

    S Offline
    S Offline
    scmtim
    wrote on last edited by
    #95

    Our format matches our language. When someone asks you the date would you tell them 26th May or May 26th?

    1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • C Chris Maunder

      Oh, and Micronesia. At least according to Wikipedia. So why does pretty much every US based service that caters to a worldwide audience use mm/dd/yyyy as a date format Latest example this hour is VS team services "Access issues with Visual Studio Team Services – 5/25 – Investigating". 5/25 = 25 May. That's easy. But when I see 6/7 or 10/8 I have to manually check the site and see what culture they are based in. No one in the US (I'm guessing - apart from ex-pats) worry about this. Or are probably even aware of this issue. Everyone else in every other country is aware of this issue. Everyone in Canada manages to deal with it. And I don't know how their brains don't explode. Canada uses dd/mm/yyyy. Except when it uses mm/dd/yyyy because either it's a US based company, they are using a US based system, they are trying to be nice to their US based customers, because they just forgot to use dd/mm/yyyy or because they know it's me and so they deliberately use an ambiguous date format to do my head in. Date formats in Canada are totally and completely messed up. So: Why, in this day and age, do those in the US, when writing for an international audience, still use mm/dd/yyyy? (And I'll add another one: Why do companies in the US find it impossible to ship outside the US? It's very odd) OK, back to hitting refresh several times a second waiting for Team Services to come back online.

      cheers Chris Maunder

      B Offline
      B Offline
      Bob Tervin
      wrote on last edited by
      #96

      Time is a slippery beast. You think you have it figured out, then stuff like this comes up. I guess that's why we're paid the big $? :)

      1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • L Lost User

        Don't forget the bad coffee.

        S Offline
        S Offline
        StatementTerminator
        wrote on last edited by
        #97

        We have decent coffee now. Those Central/South American puppet dictatorships needed to be put to useful work (for us), and cocaine and bananas weren't keeping them busy enough.

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • S Stefan_Lang

          Just how often do you need your left to change gear, and how often do you need your right to show the guy overtaking you what you think of him? See? ;) Also, I rather use my strong right hand to pull the handbrake when I do a U-turn at full speed :cool: On a more serious note, many cars nowadays have automatic transmission, and most have power assisted steering. Boring :zzz:

          GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto)

          M Offline
          M Offline
          Mark_Wallace
          wrote on last edited by
          #98

          American cars almost all have automatic gearboxes, but that's only because the daft sods kept taking their stronger hand off the wheel to change gears!

          I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

          1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • C Chris Maunder

            Oh, and Micronesia. At least according to Wikipedia. So why does pretty much every US based service that caters to a worldwide audience use mm/dd/yyyy as a date format Latest example this hour is VS team services "Access issues with Visual Studio Team Services – 5/25 – Investigating". 5/25 = 25 May. That's easy. But when I see 6/7 or 10/8 I have to manually check the site and see what culture they are based in. No one in the US (I'm guessing - apart from ex-pats) worry about this. Or are probably even aware of this issue. Everyone else in every other country is aware of this issue. Everyone in Canada manages to deal with it. And I don't know how their brains don't explode. Canada uses dd/mm/yyyy. Except when it uses mm/dd/yyyy because either it's a US based company, they are using a US based system, they are trying to be nice to their US based customers, because they just forgot to use dd/mm/yyyy or because they know it's me and so they deliberately use an ambiguous date format to do my head in. Date formats in Canada are totally and completely messed up. So: Why, in this day and age, do those in the US, when writing for an international audience, still use mm/dd/yyyy? (And I'll add another one: Why do companies in the US find it impossible to ship outside the US? It's very odd) OK, back to hitting refresh several times a second waiting for Team Services to come back online.

            cheers Chris Maunder

            J Offline
            J Offline
            JRickey
            wrote on last edited by
            #99

            We have many international customers (I'm in the US). I've been aware of the issue a long time and my tendency is to write the name of the month. Even so, I tend to write either 2016 May 26 or 26 May 2016. Is anyone aware of ISO 8601, the international standard on date and time? It promotes the YYYY-MM-DD format as well as 24-hour time HH:MM (another thing the US does not use as much as many other countries). We still have one program running here that I wrote in 1991 for a DOS-based process control. It also logged temperature from different thermistors (fed to an ADC). The log file had a YYMMDD.log style name.

            1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • C Chris Maunder

              So what's this "fourth of July" thing I keep hearing about?

              cheers Chris Maunder

              S Offline
              S Offline
              Steven1218
              wrote on last edited by
              #100

              Chris- That's easy, the "Fourth of July" (or Independence Day) is celebrated on July fourth! Also, good tea is widely available here. Typically I choose Twinings.

              1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • H Herbie Mountjoy

                In Mumbai they drive on any part of the road that's free. I may not last forever but the mess I leave behind certainly will.

                F Offline
                F Offline
                Forogar
                wrote on last edited by
                #101

                When I hired a car in Crete I asked which side of the road people drove on. The reply was, "The shady side".

                - I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

                1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • X xiecsuk

                  Forogar wrote:

                  Actually, I like the coffee.

                  You're right, the coffee's good. It's a good cup of tea that is impossible to find anywhere. Serves them right for ditching in Boston harbour.

                  F Offline
                  F Offline
                  Forogar
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #102

                  Quote:

                  a good cup of tea that is impossible to find

                  Too true! Until I moved to the US I mostly drank tea, now I mostly drink coffee, not because I like coffee better but because good tea is only available when I make it myself from re-imported tea from the UK!

                  - I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • J James Curran

                    Quote:

                    mm/dd/yyyy is the way it is spoken in English: "April 1st, 2051"

                    Actually, it's the way Americans say it. Apparently, European English speakers would say "The 1st of April, 2051".

                    Truth, James

                    B Offline
                    B Offline
                    bVagadishnu
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #103

                    Wouldn't that be the Calends of April? :suss:

                    _______________________________________________________________ Ah don't lean on me man, cause you can't afford the ticket

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • C Chris Maunder

                      Oh, and Micronesia. At least according to Wikipedia. So why does pretty much every US based service that caters to a worldwide audience use mm/dd/yyyy as a date format Latest example this hour is VS team services "Access issues with Visual Studio Team Services – 5/25 – Investigating". 5/25 = 25 May. That's easy. But when I see 6/7 or 10/8 I have to manually check the site and see what culture they are based in. No one in the US (I'm guessing - apart from ex-pats) worry about this. Or are probably even aware of this issue. Everyone else in every other country is aware of this issue. Everyone in Canada manages to deal with it. And I don't know how their brains don't explode. Canada uses dd/mm/yyyy. Except when it uses mm/dd/yyyy because either it's a US based company, they are using a US based system, they are trying to be nice to their US based customers, because they just forgot to use dd/mm/yyyy or because they know it's me and so they deliberately use an ambiguous date format to do my head in. Date formats in Canada are totally and completely messed up. So: Why, in this day and age, do those in the US, when writing for an international audience, still use mm/dd/yyyy? (And I'll add another one: Why do companies in the US find it impossible to ship outside the US? It's very odd) OK, back to hitting refresh several times a second waiting for Team Services to come back online.

                      cheers Chris Maunder

                      M Offline
                      M Offline
                      maze3
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #104

                      this is meaningless. all should be using seconds since 01 Jan 1970. 1451606400 is clearly the start of this year. And use a floating points for those that need factions of a second.

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      Reply
                      • Reply as topic
                      Log in to reply
                      • Oldest to Newest
                      • Newest to Oldest
                      • Most Votes


                      • Login

                      • Don't have an account? Register

                      • Login or register to search.
                      • First post
                        Last post
                      0
                      • Categories
                      • Recent
                      • Tags
                      • Popular
                      • World
                      • Users
                      • Groups