Re: Confusing language, was Re: Help help.. please.i am totaly n

Re: Confusing language, was Re: Help help.. please.i am totaly n

[Wilhelm Spickermann]

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On 12-Nov-99 Robert Dewar wrote:

..
> 
>    ISO_Date      : constant Picture_String := "%Y/%m/%d";
>    US_Date       : constant Picture_String := "%m/%d/%y";
>    European_Date : constant Picture_String := "%d/%m/%y";
..

I�ve seen this "European_Date" only two times in my life before(this
year, in e-mails from the united states to my company, leading to
some confusion about the date meant). Two slashes are recognized in
many parts of Europe as indicating US dates.

AFAIK the ISO-Date (ISO/R2014-1971) uses the minus-character
("1980-05-15" or "80-05-15").

Here is a little collection of european dates from some books (no
guarantee given):
"15.5.80". Finland, Germany, Sweden, Turkey
"15-5-80"  France, Italy, Portugal, Tchekia, Slovakia, Greece
"15-5-�80" "15-5-1980" Netherlands
"15. V 80" Croatia, Serbia
"15. V. 80" Poland, Romania, Czechia, Slovakia
"15-V-1980" France
"15/5-80" Norway
"15/5 80" Sweden
"1980. V. 15" Hungary
"15)5)1980" Greece

Wilhelm

Re: Confusing language, was Re: Help help.. please.i am totaly n

[Robert Dewar]

In article
<XFMail.991113083406.wilhelm.spickermann@t-online.de>,
  Wilhelm Spickermann <wilhelm.spickermann@t-online.de> wrote:
>
> On 12-Nov-99 Robert Dewar wrote:
>
> ..
> >
> >    ISO_Date      : constant Picture_String := "%Y/%m/%d";
> >    US_Date       : constant Picture_String := "%m/%d/%y";
> >    European_Date : constant Picture_String := "%d/%m/%y";

The European_Date form is absolutely standard in British usage,
and is even used in the US, on the customs and visa forms used
to enter the united states.

> I've seen this "European_Date" only two times in my life
> before(this year, in e-mails from the united states to my
> company, leading to some confusion about the date meant). Two
> slashes are recognized in many parts of Europe as indicating
> US dates.

Yes, well Britain is not sure itself whether it is part of
Europe :-)

But you are right, there are lots of variations, note that in
this package, these are simply special cases of a much more
general mechanism, which will cover all the date formats that
you quote.


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Re: Confusing language, was Re: Help help.. please.i am totaly n

[Fraser]

paene lacrimavi postquam Robert Dewar <robert_dewar@my-deja.com> scripsit:

>> >    European_Date : constant Picture_String := "%d/%m/%y";

>The European_Date form is absolutely standard in British usage,
>and is even used in the US, on the customs and visa forms used
>to enter the united states.

Australia and New Zealand too, but they tend to follow Britain in
many things, including slang (or am I telling porkies again?).

Fraser.

Re: Confusing language, was Re: Help help.. please.i am totaly n

[Marin Condic]

Robert Dewar wrote:

> But you are right, there are lots of variations, note that in
> this package, these are simply special cases of a much more
> general mechanism, which will cover all the date formats that
> you quote.

With so many standards to choose from, how can one ever make up one's
mind? :-) It would be useful if the computer industry devised some sort
of convention which would allow programs written in a variety of
languages to easily provide text I/O logic for reading/writing dates.
After all, I can't think of any language which is incapable of reading
123.456 as a real number and 123 as an integer number, etc. Why not a
minimal acceptable standard for dates? Maybe Ada can be the first to
define such a standard?

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
If you hurry you can, for a short time only, still find me at:
Real Time & Embedded Systems, Propulsion Systems Analysis
United Technologies, Pratt & Whitney, Large Military Engines
M/S 731-95, P.O.B. 109600, West Palm Beach, FL, 33410-9600
***To reply, remove "bogon" from the domain name.***

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Re: Confusing language, was Re: Help help.. please.i am totaly n

[Robert Dewar]

In article <3832EA6D.598C8B1F@pwfl.com>,
  condicma@pwflcom wrote:

> Why not a
> minimal acceptable standard for dates? Maybe Ada can be the
> first to define such a standard?

What's wrong with the ISO standard date format???

Why should we generate yet another standard when this one
exists?


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Re: Confusing language, was Re: Help help.. please.i am totaly n

[Robert Dewar]

By the way, our GNAT.Calendar package was written by a Frenchman
so it is unlikely that it is COMPLETELY unrelated to usage in
France :-) :-)

Robert Dewar
Ada Core Technologies


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Re: Confusing language, was Re: Help help.. please.i am totaly n

[Lionel Draghi]

Pascal Obry wrote:
>
...
> > Here is a little collection of european dates from some books (no
> > guarantee given):
> > "15-V-1980" France
> 
> I've never ever seen that in France !!!
Neither do i, but wait until Y2K, and we will probably see much more
funny dates format!

BTW, Pascal, i read this to my wife, and she answered "It's clear, it's
the 15 of may, i now some people write it this way". And she is french,
tout ce qu'il-y-a de plus French. 

So, Robert, my wife is your friend :-) 

> 
...
> Pascal.

Lionel.

Re: Confusing language, was Re: Help help.. please.i am totaly n

[Wilhelm Spickermann]

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On 14-Nov-99 Pascal Obry wrote:

..
>> Here is a little collection of european dates from some books (no
>> guarantee given):
>> "15-V-1980" France
> 
> I've never ever seen that in France !!!
> 
> I can't comment for other description, but if they are
> all wrong like this one...
..

hmmm - perhaps I�m reading the wrong books...

So we are back the subject now - "confusing language". I used to think,
that I have enough material to print dates correctly in most languages.
Now I have to retire from that and fall back to using (abbreviated)
month names to avoid misunderstandings.

Wilhelm