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

[Andy Mabbett]

In message <45F133AB.80205 at xtra.co.nz>, Paul Wilkins <pmw57 at xtra.co.nz> 
writes

>>This is for both for screen readers and disabiguation of dates such as 
>>3/2/2006 or 02-03-06.

That's an important consideration.

>As I'm to believe, screen readers will read out both parts of the date 
>information. As such, having the title as 4 July 1776 will mean the 
>screen reader will read
>"The Constitution of 4 7 76 4 July 1776"

Behaviour of inadequate user-agents should not be a driving factor; for 
all we know, a user agent with better behaviour might be released next 
week, or next month, or...

Our responsibility is to publish valid, semantically-meaningful markup, 
not to pander to the former.

>As the title is currently for screen readers or to disambiguate the 
>date, it should be kept in a human understandable format.
>The Constitution of <abbr title="4 July 1776">4/7/76</abbr>

Then why doesn't that apply to dtstart and dtend, for example?

>There is some very useful information from the Manual of Style on the 
>formatting of dates and numbers.
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style_%28dates_and_numb
>ers%29
>
>The following is a direct quote of the relevant parts.
>
>
>     Incorrect date formats
[...]

That's "incorrect" according to the pretences of Wikipedia's 
administrators; not by any other authority.

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

                     Welcome to the world's longest week!