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According to RFC 561 ("Standardizing Network Mail Headers ", 1973) it was literally "at": We suggest that the text of network mail, whether transmitted over th

by js2 2y ago

According to RFC 561 ("Standardizing Network Mail Headers ", 1973) it was literally "at": We suggest that the text of network mail, whether transmitted over the FTP telnet connection (via the MAIL command) or over a separate data connection (with the MLFL command), be governed by the syntax below: Example: From: White at SRI-ARC Date: 24 JUL 1973 1527-PDT Subject: Multi-Site Journal Meeting Announcement NIC: 17996 At 10 AM Wednesday 25-JULY there will be a meeting to discuss a Multi-Site Journal in the context of the Utility. Y'all be here. https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc561 https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc561 RFC 733 (Standard for the Format of ARPA Network Text Messages, 1977) has examples of addresses in both formats and this note: Whenever a message might be transmitted or migrate to a host on another network, full hierarchical addresses must be specified. These are indicated as a series of words, separated by at-sign or "at" indications. https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc733 https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc733

ta1243 2y ago
> Date: 24 JUL 1973 1527-PDT Interesting. I thought Ameria preferred the "M-D-Y" order?
- ska 2y ago
  Computer scientists and similar have never liked it, so this isn’t surprising.
  - anyfoo 2y ago
    Yeah. And we ultimately all quickly settled on the ISO-like format YYYY-MM-DD (with optional and varying delimiters, it does not have to be exactly ISO), which makes the most sense of all because you can just lexicographically sort it (e.g. when listing file names).
- syncsynchalt 2y ago
  "dd MON yy" is US military format, and I can see early computer scientists adopting it for its inherent unambiguity (and also extending it to yyyy for reasons that became obvious). Americans colloquially prefer m/d/yy (slashes) rather than dashes, anyway.
- Locutus_ 2y ago
  Systems from DEC also prefered this date format (RSX11 and VMS).

by js2 2y ago

ta1243 2y ago

> Date: 24 JUL 1973 1527-PDT Interesting. I thought Ameria preferred the "M-D-Y" order?

ska 2y ago
Computer scientists and similar have never liked it, so this isn’t surprising.
- anyfoo 2y ago
  Yeah. And we ultimately all quickly settled on the ISO-like format YYYY-MM-DD (with optional and varying delimiters, it does not have to be exactly ISO), which makes the most sense of all because you can just lexicographically sort it (e.g. when listing file names).
syncsynchalt 2y ago
"dd MON yy" is US military format, and I can see early computer scientists adopting it for its inherent unambiguity (and also extending it to yyyy for reasons that became obvious). Americans colloquially prefer m/d/yy (slashes) rather than dashes, anyway.
Locutus_ 2y ago
Systems from DEC also prefered this date format (RSX11 and VMS).