Re: gnus date suggestion

["François Pinard" <pinard@iro.umontreal.ca>]

Kyle Jones <kyle_jones@wonderworks.com> écrit:

> I'm sure that I've lost track of the point of this discussion.
> François, what exactly are you advocating?

Not much: that we stay open minded to writing of international dates,
use all opportunities we get to switch, and always be careful to *also*
recognise international dates wherever software parse dates.

It would also be nice if software was offering to display dates as
ISO dates, would it imply a conversion at display time.  A `Wash Dates'
feature, in Gnus terms :-).  People could write and see ISO dates, and soon
consider American dates as some Quoted-Printable equivalent for dates :-).

Jason R Mastaler <jason@4b.org> écrit:

> Please be kind enough to followup to these discussions more frequently
> than every two or three months.

I surely would if I had more free time, yet there is no emergency to do
it all in a rush.  Those things take time, anyway.  Most of the work to do
is of human nature, for us to get more aware.  As for technical problems,
they are fairly easy to solve, at least within the free software world.

Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> écrit:

> Sure.  But we have a situation where all current software supports
> RFC822 Date headers, and parsing those headers aren't all that difficult.

Parsing by software?  Yes, no problem there.  Parsed by a human, it stays
awkward for many non-Americans.  ISO 8601 is not only more logically
organised, it also does not impose English words or abbreviations.

> However, it does not therefore follow that one should try to redesign
> most of the common universe for little real gain.

Software, and Gnus is a good example of this, is often made up of
myriads of accumulated details, many of which not being that important
by themselves.  However, driven by a unifying spirit with a vision,
such accumulation may yield tremendous results.  Internationalisation is
somewhat similar.  Details are only important through their accumulation.
ISO 8601 is a notable detail in this picture, and not a difficult one.

-- 
François Pinard                            mailto:pinard@iro.umontreal.ca
Join the free Translation Project!    http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~pinard