Numerical Date Controversy

I do not know for a fact (although a bit of internet searching might produce the desired information), but I guess it may stem from how we generally write the date in text. For instance if I were writing a novel and giving the date of an event, I might write, "He was born on November 13th, 1963". So it's month, day year. As I understand it, Japan uses year, month, day, which makes logical sense to me.

Back in the late 90's we had a product installed in Belgium. Over the course of three years, I made numerous trips to Brussels to work on it updating software. As a way to manage the updates, I would rename the existing files to the same file name with a date appended to it (jcontrol_030697.for for file jcontrol.for and march 6th 1997). This allowed me to revert back to previous versions if such a need arose (and it did). After a few visits, I realized it became ambiguous as I was not the only engineer from our company working on the updates and one could easily question whether the date was month, day year or day, month, year. So I changed the naming convention to append the date using a mixture of numbers and text so it was no long ambiguous (jcontrol_06Mar97).

At present, I've found that it reduces ambiguity to write the year in four digits. As 12Mar14 could be taken as March 14, 2012 or March 12, 2014 or even the number 12 with March 14th after it. 12Mar2014 is a little harder to confuse.

I'll revert back to two digit years after 2031.

I agree.

At the time, the years ranged from 1997 (my first trip) to 1999 (my last trip) for the program. So a two digit year did was not a source of ambiguity. I, too, use 4 digit year.

"I'll revert back to two digit years after 2031."

My obsessive/compulsive/paranoid/delusional militiaman-wannabee older brother, bless his dysfunctional heart, until recently pined for the day when we reverted back to two-digit year designators in the vain hope that Humanity would, once again, programmatically perch itself on the very brink of The Abyss. It's been at least 14 years, 8 months and a handful of days now that he's been warehousing his Survivalist's Kit and is, quite frankly, now far too advanced in years to make much use of those forty or so virgin 55-gallon drums of Y2K Jelly taking up space in his bunker, given that his personality pretty much forestalls any possibility of ever using it whether or not the planned-and-hoped-for Apocalypse ever occurred. (I've suggested he donate it to Hollywood in anticipation of yet another Alien installment [several, actually, given the quantities at hand] and the rest of the kit to Sudan, sans the Zodiac with the chaingun mount, but to no avail. Inevitably I'm met with one of those "But I might need it!" rationales that never go anywhere. Oh yes, he's also a hoarder. And a perfectionist - one of those people 'who take great pains and give them to other people?' Them.

Where was I?

Oh yes, and so after the Great Non-Event he was a bit down-in-the-dumps, Civilisation having not utterly collapsed and so he'd have to pay off that new carpet after all and so, in a rare act of pity on my part I reminded him that, Somewhere Out There Is A Rogue Asteroid With Earth's Name On It whilst handing him a ruggedised copy of Lucifer's Hammer and several fresh boxes of ZipLoc bags on which I had prominently scrawled the numerals '29'. He brightened immediately.

There is an ISO standard for dates. ISO 8601
The standard date and time format in Canada is ISO 8601, or [YYYY]-[MM]-[DD]T[hh]:[mm]:[ss].
There is still some ambiguity in bank checks and best before dates. The best before dates include something like 14 DE 12. That is Year month (written partially) and day. Always, the first number is the year. followed by month and then day. Maybe if ISO is adopted we will clear the muddy water or maybe not. Japan is a member of ISO standards as are about 160 countries. All that is required is to make the recommendation the standard rule for consumer labels.

GA

I agree completely.

You beat me to it!

Who knows?

Why do Brits pronounce the word lieutenant as 'leftenant'? Why do both Brits and Americans pronounce colonel as 'kernal'?

Why does my girlfriend insist on pronouncing pajamas as 'paJAHmas' instead of 'paJAMas'?

Vive le différence.

I agree entirely.

But what is a puzzle to me is why Americans will state that they speak English, because they don't!!

Due to a multitude of spelling, pronunciation AND even changes in the meaning of some words, I say they speak American!!!

The spelling checker on CR4 does not know or understand many English words for example, I can live with that because its American, but its baffling just how many words are different or do not exist.....

Its a different language Guys, we all must accept that!!

Do Canadians have problems with low attendance at meetings and the timely sending of birthday greetings?

Yes, but it has nothing to do with date formats.

It's the Canadian Work Ethic. We schedule our meetings on Federal Holidays, Provincial Holidays and Civic Holidays.

Refer to ISO 8601.

In a nutshell: "Because that's the way it's always been done". Which answers nothing, but is true none the less.

I suspect JBTardis is on the right track, when he stated the historic view of how we speak/write dates. Add to that, that in an agrarian culture (most of mankind's recorded history), the month is the most important to planting and harvesting crops. The day matters a little, and the year - not at all.

There is also our natural propensity toward obfuscation. Take for example how you wrote your location: "London NE, UK". Wouldn't it be better to write it "UK, London NE"? When you start with London, I as the reader do not know whether you are talking about London Ontario, or London UK, until you state the more general region. But there is an historic reason for that as well: When the world was as small as "your country", when you met someone else it was only necessary to state to each other your city. As our world got bigger, it became necessary to "tack on" more refinement of those geographical locations.

It would be more rational to state location as Universe (for those that believe in a multiverse), Galaxy, Planet, Continent, Country, State/Province, City. But it will never happen that way.

IX.V.MMXIV

It's to confuse our enemies.....

Why is bass pronounced "bass" as in bass fish and "base" as in low frequency sound?

You'll have to ask Gallagher.

Home, comb, gnome. Read, red, lead, sled. Some, numb, him.

base...

nounnoun base plural noun bases

1. the lowest part or edge of something, especially the part on which it rests or is supported.
• the part of a column between the shaft and pedestal or pavement.foundation bottom foot support stand pedestal plinth
• the end at which a part or organ is attached to the trunk or main part.
• a line or surface on which a figure is regarded as standing.
• a line of known length used in triangulation.
• the lowest part of a shield.
2. a conceptual structure or entity on which something draws or depends.
• something used as a foundation or starting point for further work; a basis.basis foundation bedrock starting point source origin root(s) core key component heart backbone
• a group of people regarded as supporting an organization, for example by buying its products.
3. the main place where a person works or stays.
• a place used as a center of operations by the armed forces or others; a headquarters.headquarters camp site station settlement post center starting point
4. a main or important element or ingredient to which other things are added.
• a substance used as a foundation for makeup.
• a substance such as water or oil into which a pigment is mixed to form paint.
5. a substance capable of reacting with an acid to form a salt and water, or (more broadly) of accepting or neutralizing hydrogen ions.
• a purine or pyrimidine group in a nucleotide or nucleic acid.
6. the middle part of a bipolar transistor, separating the emitter from the collector.
7. the root or stem of a word or a derivative.
• the uninflected form of a verb.
8. a number used as the basis of a numeration scale.
• a number in terms of which other numbers are expressed as logarithms.
9. one of the four stations that must be reached in turn to score a run.

verbverb base 3rd person present bases gerund or present participle basing past tense based past participle based

1. have as the foundation for (something); use as a point from which (something) can develop.found build construct form ground root use as a basis derive from spring from stem from originate in have its origin in issue from
2. situate as the center of operations.locate situate position install station site establish garrison

base bās adjectiveadjective base comparative adjective baser superlative adjective basest

1. (of a person or a person's actions or feelings) without moral principles; ignoble.
• denoting or befitting a person of low social class.sordid ignoble low low-minded mean immoral improper unseemly unscrupulous unprincipled dishonest dishonorable shameful badwrong evil wicked iniquitous sinful
• (of coins or other articles) not made of precious metal.
• 
  

For the same abysmal reason Americans write 'checks' instead of 'cheques'....?

ISO 8601 is a comparatively recent edition. American used this date format for long now. May be it was creating uniqueness in the garb of Simplification. They write Philips as filips, colour as color and on & on. may be Microsofts computer programming made it more popular.

Americans do opposite of British. They drive right hand British drive left hand. Corporal sign of Army for British is V whereas Americans have ^, many such examples.

No, I believe not all in the USA uses the month-day-year format...

The US military also uses the day-month-year format like as you claimed used by most!

Ain't no controversy in my mind since I have always use May 3, 1961 or 5-3-61 although there are good arguments for 1961.

However, putting the year first for better computer sorting makes a lot of sense; that is, 1961-5-3.

Actually sorting in a folder is better (I find) with such dates with the full year first, but in a program, either way is easy to sort on, day first or last....but day in the middle, it needs a tiny bit more of an effort to program, not much, but its really unnecessary....it helps no one.

The USA tends to "dance out of rhythm" with the rest of the world on many points, the least of them in importance being the date......

Lets all go Julian!

what about the first weekday on a calendar?

according to judeo-christian tradition, saturday is the seventh day and sunday the first day.

but in Germany, for example, they say monday is the first day. A convention started during the III Reich?

Maybe it was the Third Reich, I have no idea.

For me it really does not "state" as to which day of the week is the first day, it only "implies".....as a Christian, I see Sunday as the first day of the week personally....

Calendar programs allow the choice of either here.....the UK is about the same.....can be either.

IT all Depends on the bent of mind. first day to rest or to work. Rest all is same.

Why do Americans use Month/Day/Year? Inertia.

Possibly true with the public ..... But not All Americans in general !

A good example are The U.S. military. They too uses the "day-month-year" format.

Interesting, thanks.

I see it as a similar situation as why we Americans haven't gone metric. The answer is, in a great number of cases, we have. It just isn't public policy. Because Inertia.

It is more like "Democracy at work" rather than 'Inertia" ..... where people can decide based on their own preference!

After using metric in college and Argonne Nat'l Lab, I think people would like it if we (USA) would just up and do it. Yes, it would be a pain getting it done because of all the tables, computer programs, etc, etc; but they would like it.

(For Trekies), posted at Stardate 92292.98