Re: [OT Why GB English is different] Re: Mozilla firefox en-gb
On Thu, May 06, 2004 at 11:13:25AM -0400, richard lyons wrote:
> The only truly irrational method is the american one, zigzagging the orders of
> magnitude hither and thither. Still, it is one of the quirks that endear our
> transatlantic friends to us.
I was trying to argue that with my Math Prof. that for consistencies
sake either the year or the day must come first, followed by units in
consistent order: either yyyy-mm-dd or dd-mm-yyyy.
He was all into Jungian psychology, and he was telling me that it's all
about what information people need to know more than some slavish
devotion to consistency. When you give a date the odds are pretty good
the year is well known, so it can go last. The month is not as likely
to be well known, and it needs to be established before the day means
anything.
He sure convinced me. But like I said, his main point was conveying to
me sometimes how a consistency is not the best value: others trump it.
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