Re: [xsl] Re: XSLT Date

[Francis Norton <francis@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joerg Pietschmann wrote:
> 
> The serialized lexical format should be ISO derived, as set forth by the
> XSchema spec. Localization is unwise, any serious attempt would end up
> as voluminous as the Unicode standard (including the character tables).
> 
Good - that's what I hoped you were saying!

> The problem with the moans is that computers can solve partial differential
> equations, which most humans are bad at, but have trouble parsing randomly
> formatted dates, something trivial for most people. Nevertheless, it's time
> to adapt people to the computer's point of view instead the other way around.
> This greatly simplifies software without inconveniencing people too much.
> After some time people will get over it. And with XML buried under GUI
> tools, only a few IT-geeks will have to deal with it anyway.
> 
yes - people have adjusted to the fact that phone numbers, email
addresses and URLs tend to be less forgiving than humans, I think that
the same may happen for dates. But I think another factor is that much
of the time XML will be generated by other programs, for example
applications or databases, which may well validate local dates, and
should be able to convert them to ISO 8601. None of the XML I deal with
has dates entered directly by users.

> > Yes, but if we describe it as "XPath 2.0 accepts understands dates in a
> > system format" then we run less risk of the moans.
> No, no, no, stick to the XSchema format and wait for the moans to fade.
> Functions for formatting and perhaps parsing localized dates may be provided
> later as add-on module. Don't put it into the core. This way implementors
> have a choice, and there should be enough time to get the spec right.
> 
My phrase "system format" was just meant to be an expectation-lowering
way of describing ISO 8601. I totally agree we should stick to XML
Schema format. In fact I think I agree with you on everything (that
we've discussed so far) which is just as well since I'm not a dates
specialist!

Francis.

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