8 ms·

I'm wondering how difficult (if not impossible?) it would be to change the format in the US. It makes no sense whatsoever and the US seem to be the only place

• tankenmate 9y ago
  Welcome to the world of middle endian. And for this reason the ISO standard is yyyy-mm-dd, big endian just like writing numbers; and it sorts (numerically not lexigraphically) properly too!
  • ClashTheBunny 9y ago
    It sorts lexigraphically if it is zero padded.
    • jwandborg 9y ago
      Only as long as you zero-pad the year according to the maximum year in your list. I'll dub this "the year 10000" problem.
      • continuational 9y ago
        By the year 10000, hopefully terrestial time is long obsolete, and replaced with whatever makes sense for a multi-planet species.
        • pjmlp 9y ago
          Assuming that is anyone left that cares about it.
        • skriticos2 9y ago
          Based upon human stubbornness, every planet will have it's own time and date system that will be divided based on historically obscure details before/during and after colonization. Stuff like Thursday is essentially "Thor's day" and in German it literally says "day of the thunder" (Donnerstag). ps.: Thursday is also Jupiter's day, so it will probably prevail on any colony / permanent human station orbiting it/it's moons. pps.: I hope they get over the stupid imperial vs. metric divide though.. that one is really annoying.
          • johnlbevan2 9y ago
            Interplanetary daylight savings could be a lot of fun too.
      • pgeorgi 9y ago
        > I'll dub this "the year 10000" problem. http://longnow.org/about/ http://longnow.org/about/ "The Long Now Foundation uses five-digit dates, the extra zero is to solve the deca-millennium bug which will come into effect in about 8,000 years."
        • cpeterso 9y ago
          Long Now's use of five-digit years is also supposed to jolt readers and remind them to think in the bigger picture.
• yjftsjthsd-h 9y ago
  I would expect that to be exactly as difficult as converting from Imperial to metric units in general, which has been a complete and utter disaster so far.
• hungerstrike 9y ago
  It makes sense because of the way that you say it. “January 1, 1970” == 1/1/1970. Other formats don’t make sense.
  • libertyEQ 9y ago
    >because of the way that you say it Because of the way you say it in English?
    • hungerstrike 9y ago
      English is the official language of the USA.
      • libertyEQ 9y ago
        No, the US has no official language at the federal level: " English is the official language of 32 states; English and Hawaiian are both official languages in Hawaii, and English and 20 Indigenous languages are official in Alaska. Algonquian, Cherokee, and Sioux are among many other official languages in Native-controlled lands throughout the country. French is a de facto, but unofficial, language in Maine and Louisiana, while New Mexico law grants Spanish a special status."
        • hungerstrike 9y ago
          English is spoken by the vast, vast majority here. So it is the de facto standard language in the United States. Nothing that you have said has explained why anybody should make a change to the date format.
  • dingaling 9y ago
    That format of long-form dates is also an Americanism. For example, from the BBC Style Guide: "Dates: Put the day before the month (eg: 12 April 2001)” http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/journalism/article/art20130702112133541 http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/journalism/article/art201307021...