[uf-discuss] Formatting arbitrary dates, not part of hCalendar

[Andy Mabbett]

In message <45ECABBD.3865.380950 at bjonkman.sobac.com>, Bob Jonkman 
<bjonkman at sobac.com> writes

>Today I had the urge to mark up an arbitrary date, not one that is part 
>of an hCalendar event, eg.
>
>  Use version 7.0.2 from <abbr title="2007-03-05">5 March 2007</span>
>
>This is to provide some standarization in presenting dates, but keep 
>them human- readable in arbitrary format.
>
>dtstart and dtend aren't appropriate semantic classes in this example. 
>Is there a proper microformat for arbitrary dates?

I can see accessibility and other advantages in that, more specifically 
in:

    Use version 7.0.2 from <abbr title="2007-03-05">5/3/2007</span>

in that user agents can be "told" to speak, or render on screen, that as 
"the fifth of March 2007" or "March fifth, 2007" or whatever is the 
user's preference (note, for comparison, that Wikipedia user settings 
allow [[March 5]] [[2007]] to be rendered according to the user's 
preference).


User agents could also be told not to confuse it with the third of May.


The same goes for telephone numbers (currently only available inside 
larger microformats), and the proposed currency microformat.

-- 
Andy Mabbett
                  <http://www.pigsonthewing.org.uk/uFsig/>

                     Welcome to the world's longest week!