[AG-TECH] Date formats

[Osland, CD (Chris)]

It's good to see that people (and systems) are now remembering to
specify timezones for meeting times, and often including UTC as
a universal reference.

Can I now put in a plea for a similar bit of tidying up on the
format of dates.  When I got back from Christmas / New Year, I
had an e-mail from the NCSA scheduler telling me of a meeting on
1/4/03.  In the UK this means April 1, 2003.  In the US it means
Jan 4, 2003.  As it came from NCSA I guessed it meant the latter,
[and I'd missed the meeting!]

As these conventions are too deeply embedded in the respective
cultures, I suggested both forms are avoided.  To my mind there
are two possible solutions: (a) use a form that has the month as text,
or (b) use the form, common in Japan, where the year comes first,
followed by month and finally day.

(a)	Jan 4, 2003;   January 4, 2003; 4 Jan 2003; 4 January 2003

To be honest, this is the form I think is best in e-mails, as it
is quick to read, difficult to mis-read and unambiguous.  
Personally I'm not fussed about which variant - possibly a 
slight preference for the first.

(b)   2003/1/4; 2003/01/04 (or a different character instead of '/')

This appears to be the safest for databases, spreadsheets and the
like, where there is a good chance someone may sort the table.
For this reason, the second form is better, as it permits
textual sorting without '2' coming after '10'.  I haven't
mentioned the Unix-like 20030104 because it seems MUCH too
likely to be mis-scanned by eye.

Any thoughts from the community at large (and ducks as many
cans of worms are emptied over my head!)

Cheers

Chris
____________________________________________________________________
Chris Osland                         Office tel: +44 (0) 1235 446565
Digital Media and Access Grid      Medialab tel: +44 (0) 1235 446459
BIT Department             Access Grid room tel: +44 (0) 1235 445666
e-mail:   C.D.Osland at rl.ac.uk               Fax: +44 (0) 1235 445597

CLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (Bldg. R18)
Chilton, DIDCOT, Oxon OX11 0QX, UK

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