You are right we do still say 4th of July, but usually we tend to just prefer a different format when talking about everyday things. I’m going to visit on July 15th, I have a appointment May 12th, etc. This is much more natural in American English. Saying the “12th of May” just sounds overly formal. Which is fine for a holiday, but not everyday speech.
So I guess the question is when did this shift between American and British English occur in relation to the creation of are dating formats.
I’ve never met an American English speaker that says today is 2026 March 3rd. They would say today is March 3rd 2026. If the year is included at all, usually it isn’t and is understood.
I’ve been using yyyymmdd and was appalled when I found out the ones appaled by the American method uses ddmmyyyy. It doesn’t even sort chronologicaly in alpha numeric ordering. Just why???
When naming files that need to be alphanumerically sorted, yyyymmdd it’s absolutely what anyone I know will use. But in writing or language, mmddyyyy is the way to go. You start with the most gradual denominator, since it’s the most important and you sometimes skip the larger ones because they can be evident
and you sometimes skip the larger ones because they can be evident
So, skip the month: dd-MM-YYYY.
There’s no scenario in which MM-dd-YYYY makes more sense. Unless you’re expecting to communicate with someone with heavy brain damage who cannot retain information for 0.2 seconds, I guess?
Yeah, I seem to remember that architecture code is done little endian, and the network stack is big endian. Then there is bi-endian, which I have no clue how that works.
stoy@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Just America’s stupid date format.
fartsparkles@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
mm/dd/yy is a crime akin to min:sec:hour
pogodem0n@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
There is min:sec:hour? I feel incredibly fortunate to have never interacted with it.
anomnom@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I think I heard the whoosh.
Starski@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Its just how we say dates, probably came from how we often verbally say dates, like “oh hey it’s February 18th, 2026”
Don’t act like your countries don’t have weird specific things either.
arrow74@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
It makes sense with spoken English. You say March 3rd not 3rd March.
I get the increased efficiency of ddmmyy in a number based format, but it’s not hard to see how it evolved the other way from the language
accideath@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
But why do US-Americans say March 3rd? The British don’t. They prefer 3rd of March. And the USA loves their 4th of july…
arrow74@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
You are right we do still say 4th of July, but usually we tend to just prefer a different format when talking about everyday things. I’m going to visit on July 15th, I have a appointment May 12th, etc. This is much more natural in American English. Saying the “12th of May” just sounds overly formal. Which is fine for a holiday, but not everyday speech.
So I guess the question is when did this shift between American and British English occur in relation to the creation of are dating formats.
SorteKanin@feddit.dk 3 weeks ago
Yea makes total sense - so you’d go for the logical yyyy-mm-dd format then, to fit with how you speak the date? Right? 😅
arrow74@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
I’ve never met an American English speaker that says today is 2026 March 3rd. They would say today is March 3rd 2026. If the year is included at all, usually it isn’t and is understood.
darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
If you are Yoda.
sorghum@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I’ve been using yyyymmdd and was appalled when I found out the ones appaled by the American method uses ddmmyyyy. It doesn’t even sort chronologicaly in alpha numeric ordering. Just why???
stoy@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
It’s worse, the American standard is mm/dd/yyyy.
whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I go by yyyy/dd-mm:ww because I’m special
accideath@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
When naming files that need to be alphanumerically sorted, yyyymmdd it’s absolutely what anyone I know will use. But in writing or language, mmddyyyy is the way to go. You start with the most gradual denominator, since it’s the most important and you sometimes skip the larger ones because they can be evident
Alaknar@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
So, the year. YYYY-MM-dd.
So, skip the month: dd-MM-YYYY.
There’s no scenario in which MM-dd-YYYY makes more sense. Unless you’re expecting to communicate with someone with heavy brain damage who cannot retain information for 0.2 seconds, I guess?
sorghum@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I’d much rather have consistency. If yyyymmdd is the best solution for file names, it’s the best across the board.
LH0ezVT@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Oh boy, never look up big / little endian in computers
darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Both big and little endian make some logical sense, unlike the US date format which instead is like the middle endian (in)famously used by the PDP-11.
sorghum@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Yeah, I seem to remember that architecture code is done little endian, and the network stack is big endian. Then there is bi-endian, which I have no clue how that works.
urandom@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
They don’t use ddmmyyyy, but mmddyyyy
certified_expert@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
USians. The rest of America uses metric and normal dates
stoy@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Fair point.