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Comment on I've noticed a lot of UK job applications use the American MM/DD/YYYY date format and some also say "resume" instead of CV. Does that annoy you if you're British?

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themeatbridge@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

ISO is best. There’s no debate there. From a data science perspective, YYYY/MM/DD is the only reasonable choice.

But most of the time you’re using dates, you’re only concerned with the month and day. That’s the very reason we don’t use ISO in our daily lives. If you started every mention of a date with the year, people would think you’re a crazy person, or a time traveler, or perhaps a recently-awakened coma patient. There’s just no need to begin with the year. Next Wednesday, 2024 December 18.

If you exclude the year, then the choice is month/day or day/month. Between the two, month/day is far more useful for the same reasons ISO is best. If I need both the month and the day, then I want the month first. The only time I would want the day first is if the month doesn’t matter, and I can omit the month in that case. Giving me the day first and then the month forces me to wait for the month and then remember the day. It’s inefficient transfer of information. If you exclude the year, MM/DD is objectively, if only marginally, better than DD/MM.

But then why would anyone use MM/DD/(YY)YY? Because we’re already using MM/DD.

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xmunk@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Ahem - there is a debate… it’s over / vs. -. As is proper - all true debates should be over minor formatting decisions (soft tabs over my fucking dead body).

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- Kelly@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  / can’t be used in a filename on most common filesystems so that doesn’t enter the conversation the real question is if you include - as a delimiter at all.
  
  20241212 or 2024-12-12? They are fixed width fields so I skip the delimiter when I’m storing data* but tend to use the delimiter when writing for a general audience.
  
  * Y10k problem right here!
  
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  - CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    What programmer in their right mind uses / instead of -?
    
    I use the delimiter when writing out log files when I want hour or minute in the logfile name. SantaChimneyLog_20241225-0312.txt. Otherwise yeah it just gets left off.
    
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    Kelly@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    ISO 8601 gets a bit weird with times.
    
    Using T to separate the date and time components looks a but strange but is unambiguous and widely compatible.
    
    Then the : delimiter between the time components is just impractical because, well again we put data in files and files live in filesystems. Any special characters that can’t be used in filenames on all major filesystems is a nonstarter.
    
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SouthEndSunset@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
I’ll see you on the 1st of the 1st.

I see nothing wrong with that. The day number moves most frequently, so that should go first. The month moves second most frequently, so that should go second. Putting the month first makes it odd.

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- themeatbridge@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Why would the number that moves most go first? Numbers don’t work that way normally.
  
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- Nibodhika@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  
  The day number moves most frequently, so that should go first.
  
  Are you German? How do you read 35? Is it 5 and 30? Or 30 and 5? Because the most significant number comes first, the one that moves most cones last.
  
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  - SouthEndSunset@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    No, I am not. I just say dates the way people in my country say them, as do you, I suppose.
    
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- xigoi@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Do you also say “six, fifty and two hundred” instead of “two hundred and fifty six”?
  
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  - SouthEndSunset@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    Fair play…this is just how we say dates.
    
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