ls has stopped using the ISO date format
in [Debian]
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From: Ron Johnson on 31 May 2010 09:10 On 05/31/2010 01:39 AM, Camale�n wrote: > On Mon, 31 May 2010 01:51:14 +0300, Andrei Popescu wrote: > >> On Sun,30.May.10, 18:05:43, Camale�n wrote: > > (...) > >>> This way I have to think *less* to be sure about the date. No guessing. >> >> You example shows only dates where it is quite obvious what date format >> is used. Let me see... >> >> -rwx------ 1 amp amp 891837 2010-05-03 22:55 03052010065.jpg >> -rwx------ 1 amp amp 733361 2010-05-03 22:55 03052010066.jpg >> >> Can you tell if these files were created 5th march or 3rd may? How (I'd >> really like to know)? > > You got it :-) > > That can only be read as "3rd May, 2010". In the US, 03052010 (MMDDYYYY is a *very* common format, even among "computer people" who should know better and still use it in file names) is March 05, 2010. > And that is precisely the gain of the ISO date format over the rest of > the other alternatives: nodoby has to ask -or guess- "what your locale > is" in order to correctly interpret the date you are showing because is > always fixed ("year-month-day" notation). > > Humans have to learn many things from computers. Mainly, "logic". > And people's names should, like in many Asian cultures, be: Family, Given. Johnson, Ronald Popescu, Andrei Bargmann, Nate People's names sort naturally, without the need for a separate (and arbitrarily sized) first_name and last_name fields in databases. -- Dissent is patriotic, remember? -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST(a)lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster(a)lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4C03B44A.9000908(a)cox.net
From: Daniel Barclay on 1 Jun 2010 11:00 Andrei Popescu wrote: > For me dd mmm yyyy is very clear ... Even when the month abbreviation is in a language you don't know? That's why the ISO date formats are numeric: As long as one uses [whatever the right name for our Arabic-digit-based decimal system is], one can read the ISO date format. Daniel -- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST(a)lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster(a)lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4C052001.9040305(a)fgm.com
From: Daniel Barclay on 1 Jun 2010 11:10 Andrei Popescu wrote: .... > > You example shows only dates where it is quite obvious what date format > is used. Let me see... > > -rwx------ 1 amp amp 891837 2010-05-03 22:55 03052010065.jpg > -rwx------ 1 amp amp 733361 2010-05-03 22:55 03052010066.jpg > > Can you tell if these files were created 5th march or 3rd may? How (I'd > really like to know)? The third of May, because it's recognizable as the ISO date/time format (because of the hyphens, and, in that case, because of the time format (no "am" or "pm") and position (after the date part)). Yes, that depends on there not being any similar format that uses hyphens but a different number order, but there isn't, is there? And even if one doesn't already know the ISO format, one could easily recognize from the year, hour, and minute that the components are in descending size order (year before month, month before day of month, etc.) Daniel -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST(a)lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster(a)lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4C0521ED.9040004(a)fgm.com
From: H.S. on 1 Jun 2010 11:20 On 31/05/10 05:38 AM, Camaleón wrote: > > Besides, I also tend to name the files and folders as > "2010-05-31_filename" and so on, they keep my mind (and my computer) in a > very well organized fit :-) Totally agree. This is one of the main uses of ISO date format that I routinely take advantage of. Most common scenario in my case is organizing my photos (mostly scanned from film, digital as well). I have a /path/to/photos directory and in that I have directories for each roll or group of photos named something like 20100601_00_nn_Subject (YYYYMMDD_<Roll number of that date>_<framenumber>_<subject string>). This way, the default order of listing is always chronological. And for the cases where I do not know the YYYY or MM or DD, I just use zeros. Works pretty well. In fact, there is no other date format that can work this good! Further, the ISO date format has a structure where the resolution gets finer as go towards the right. YYYY->MM->DD->HH->SS just shows smaller time units as we read it. I can understand if an average Joe sticks with non-ISO date formats. But for logic and computer related stuff, ISO format is the best choice, IMHO. -- Please reply to this list only. I read this list on its corresponding newsgroup on gmane.org. Replies sent to my email address are just filtered to a folder in my mailbox and get periodically deleted without ever having been read. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST(a)lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster(a)lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/hu38d4$3li$1(a)dough.gmane.org
From: Daniel Barclay on 1 Jun 2010 11:20
Ron Johnson wrote: > On 05/30/2010 05:51 PM, Andrei Popescu wrote: > [snip] >> >> You example shows only dates where it is quite obvious what date format >> is used. Let me see... >> >> -rwx------ 1 amp amp 891837 2010-05-03 22:55 03052010065.jpg >> -rwx------ 1 amp amp 733361 2010-05-03 22:55 03052010066.jpg >> >> Can you tell if these files were created 5th march or 3rd may? How (I'd >> really like to know)? >> > > That's the point... Which is why YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm is the only rational > format. Well, except for the ISO variation YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm, good for when you want to avoid spaces (e.g., in filenames). :-) Daniel -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST(a)lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster(a)lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4C052336.7020501(a)fgm.com |