[uf-discuss] RE: Microformats and RDFa not as far apart as previously thought

[Belov, Charles]

> -----Original Message-----
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:17:24 -0700
> From: Guillaume Lebleu <guillaume at lebleu.org>
> Subject: Re: [uf-discuss] RE: Microformats and RDFa not as far apart
> 	as	previously thought
> To: Microformats Discuss <microformats-discuss at microformats.org>
> Message-ID: <48617274.3030803 at lebleu.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
> 
> Belov, Charles wrote:
>> I feel it is unreasonable to ask a non-technical person to produce 
>> ISO-format dates/times, so microformats do not produce an acceptable 
>> solution at this time for marking up meeting announcements.
> I agree that only an editor extension would make writing ISO-format
date/time practical by humans, which I never felt was compliant with
"designed for humans first, machine second".
> 
> What about the idea of a plain old English microformat ("POEM"?) based
on well-known practices in various languages [1], in the tradition of
"paving the cows path": these practices are pretty-well established IMO
and used by authors in the newspapers, magazines, etc. For instance, in
> English:
> 
> <span class="dstart" lang="en-us">October 5, 2004</span> <span
class="dstart" lang="en-us">10/5/2004</span> <span class="dstart"
lang="fr">5 Octobre 2004</span> <span class="dstart"
lang="fr">5/10/2004</span>
> 
> The locale could be specified locally (lang="en-us") or inherited from
the HTML document or a containing div.
> 
> Granted it would make the parsing more complex, but it would comply
with "designed for humans first, machine second".
> 
> Also, additional class would be required to distinguish the date part
from the time part in something like:
> 
> <span class="dstart" lang="en-us"><span class="date">October 5,
2004<span> at <span 
> class="time">6PM</span></span>

I'd suggest modifying that to not require the computer to parse the
date. Something like:
<span class="dstartm" lang="en-us">October</span> <span
class="dstartd">5</span>, <span class="dstarty">2004</span>

Hope this helps,
Charles "Chas" Belov
SFMTA Webmaster