Re: Date/Time Classes

From: williamkempf_at_[hidden]
Date: 2001-03-22 10:30:08

--- In boost_at_y..., yahoo_at_b... wrote:
> --- In boost_at_y..., "George A. Heintzelman" <georgeh_at_a...> wrote:
> >  <sniped interesting things about Date classes>
> <rant>
> Please, whoever thinks about writing a Date in string format
> there is A STANDARD format, ISO 8601, for doing this.
> If only people cared to look at it ( http://www.go
> ogle.com/search?q=ISO+Date+Format ),
> I would not end up coding a new input format for each and every new
> data file :-(((
> It should really be the default (I'm tempted to say the only!) way
> of writing your dates in string format.
> Stop the madness, refuse the american (is it really american? )
> middle-endian format :-)
> I know someone who missed a flight because the date was written
> mm/dd/yy !
> How are we suppose to sort thoses !
> 
> </rant>
> Sorry for the rant, but I HATE parsing the n+1th date format someone
> thought up as a way to express his creativity.
> BTW, I'm all for the approach described, maybe we should study
> carefully java classes to learn from their mistakes.

For data representation in a string format I would agree.  However, 
display for human consumption *HAS* to be configurable by locale, and 
if you can write the date out in this format you need to be able to 
read it in that format.  So though I understand your rant here, a 
usable date/time class can not restrict itself to a single text 
representation.

Bill Kempf