On Sun, Feb 3, 2019 at 1:35 PM DL Neil <pythonl...@danceswithmice.info> wrote:
> On 3/02/19 10:16 PM, Chris Angelico wrote: > > On Sun, Feb 3, 2019 at 8:09 PM DL Neil <pythonl...@danceswithmice.info> > wrote: > >> On 3/02/19 9:45 PM, Chris Angelico wrote: > >>> Which is why I always write dates in sorted format, usually eschewing > >>> delimiters: > >>> //CJA 20160511: Is this still happening? I don't remember seeing it in > >>> three parts of forever. > >> Sure is. It is an acceptable alternative under the ISO standard. > > > > Not sure if you're responding to the content of the comment there; > > Comment? I don't see no #, ''', or """! > (am teasing) > > > [ccyymmdd cf ccyy-mm-dd] > >> Some would say it is more sensible to use when storing data because it > >> removes the dash/hyphen separators in exchange for implying the > >> fixed-format. (more bytes/characters saved if extend to include the > time) > >> > >> I'm not going there - recalling folk from these memory-is-cheap times > >> being less able to understand why we used to save 'expensive' storage > >> space by using yy-years (instead of ccyy) and thus 'causing' "the > >> millennium bug" aka Y2K! > > > > Skipping the delimiter isn't about saving space, it's about > > consistency. If I say "non-delimited sorted date", you can almost > > certainly write out a character-for-character identical date - handy > > if you want to search a bunch of files, for instance. Having > > delimiters leaves people free to dispute whether they should be > > slashes, hyphens, dots, or maybe something else. > > This logic indisputable. > > However, the whole purpose of an ISO standard is to remove "dispute", > locally and internationally! Thus, if not sufficiently-well stated > earlier, the standard is actually for information interchange purposes. > > > >> I find it much slower to decode than reading the same with embedded > >> separators! > > Sure. I mainly use it in contexts where the most important information > > is simply "that's a date", rather than actually caring what the date > > *is*. > [paras re-ordered] > > +1 > > > In case other readers are following-along-at-home, and the (above) > purpose of the standard was insufficiently obvious, I did a bit of > review 'homework': > > - ISO standards are still not $free > > - a good write-up from the ISO appears on the Wayback machine at > > https://web.archive.org/web/20110614235056/http://www.iso.org/iso/support/faqs/faqs_widely_used_standards/widely_used_standards_other/date_and_time_format.htm > - the above makes the point about "interchange" and offers similar > examples of date-confusion to those 'here'/earlier > - mention is made of formats including/excluding delimiters > (I haven't been able to check this, but can't find any evidence that > separators other than "-" are allowed (in dates) ) > > - in lieu of the ISO text, those of us working over the Internet will > turn to RFC 3339 > - this is a slight simplification of the ISO standard > - the ABNF appendix *requires* a dash/hyphen as (date) separator > > - Markus Kuhn at Cambridge (British university) provides a readable and > thought-provoking summary at https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-time.html > - uses dashes/hyphens > - discusses international considerations (I've just learned that the > Chinese date notation preceded the ISO order, as did the conventions of > a number of other countries) > - supports the compact/'no debate' format "The hyphens can be omitted if > compactness of the representation is more important than human > readability" (as well as caring for my fading vision) > > > >> I wouldn't use it in a 'visible' situation though, eg a fileNM. Yes, it > >> is shorter, but as my eyes age (they are already older than my teeth!), > > Guess your teeth better work on catching up... > > Can't put them under the pressure of thinking it is a race - they could > decide to drop out! > > > >>> That said, I am aware that I am not in any way a "normal person". > >>> Using month names as per your other example is probably a fair > >>> compromise with other humans. > > In this life, one does have to make allowances... > > > >> There's normal and there's normal - like it's tomato or tomato? > > I dunno. I'm the kind of normal that likes tomatoes (not to be > > confused with tomatoes). Does that help? > > If you like tomatoes, and tomatoes are fruit, do you (normally) chug > tomato sauce (ketchup) as if it is fruit juice? > I'm surprised that no one has yet addressed the year 10000 problem. Hopefully we're doing numeric, not alpha sorts on the stuff before the 1st '-'. And, the compact versions will really screw up :). -- **** Listen to my FREE CD at http://www.mellowood.ca/music/cedars **** Bob van der Poel ** Wynndel, British Columbia, CANADA ** EMAIL: b...@mellowood.ca WWW: http://www.mellowood.ca -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list