Date formats

[Major <cbmvax!uunet!pta.oz.au!major>]

K
Keith F. Lynch's message <kfl@quake.LCS.MIT.EDU> writes:

>   But the digits are in descending order *within* the date.  Today,
>   British style, is 03-09-90, not 30-90-09.  Thus the "Japanese" style
>   is more logical, and I've used it on my files for years.

Mmmm. Thats true. If you remove the field separators and think of
them as single digits not year, month, day then the Japanese way
does make more sense.

>   > The British method is ascending order of significance and the
>   > Japanese descending order of significance.
>
>   (Which way is it usually done in Australia?)

British style (dd/mm/yy) is recognised and generated.
Japanese style (yymmdd or y.mm.dd) is recognised, but rarely used.
American style (mm/dd/yy) is widely regarded as ugly and a massive
source of confusion: "What does he mean he posted it to us on the
 eighth of December '90, that hasn't happened yet! ... Oh, %$#$%@
American dates"

>   Don't the British say second January 1990?

(Speaking for Australians) Not as often as we say January second 1990.

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