ISO 8601, Or Thereabouts
23 February 2006
What day is it today?
02 23 06?
23 02 06?
06 02 23?
2006 02 23?
I don’t have any beef with the CCYY MM DD notation as proposed by the ISO. The only thing I don’t comprehend is why the International Organization for Standardization chose the hyphen as their date format separating notation. Usually the dash is used to indicate a duration of time, e.g., 2006-08 where we’re talking of 2006, 2007 and 2008 — not August 2006 as ISO would like to have it.
How about these alternative formats:
2006′02′23
2006/02/23
2006:02:23
2006.02.23
Sure, the colon could be mistaken for time (but used in EXIF), the slash (goverment papers in Singapore) — along with the comma (European variety) — with existing notations, but the apostrophe (as in Adobe Acrobat) could work. It is already used quite frequently in date formats, as in “the swinging ’60s”. Certainly it could be confused with time representation as in 3′ 20″ (think of your iPod), or as the geographers would prefer it, 103° 50′ E (follow the Equator east and turn left for Singapore).
2006′02′23? Nah, I’d still rather use the European convention of forcing the comma in any space, as in 2006.02.23. And besides, with 2006.08 you won’t be confused with any old ‘06, ‘07 and ‘08.
More?
What is this ISO 8601 anyway? (In plain English.)
The Big ISO 8601 Kahuna itself.
Glossary:
CC = century, e.g., 20
YY = year, e.g., 06
MM = month, e.g., 02
DD = day, e.g., 23
Exempli Gratia
2006-02-23T00:05+0200 = 23 February 2006 at five minutes past midnight on two hours ahead of the Greenwich Mean Time (which more or less corresponds to the UTC). Of course, that time is equal to 2006-02-22T22:05Z (where that “Zulu” just means of zero time zone, i.e., GMT/UTC, or so I’m told).
2006-08 = August 2006
2006-02/2008-02 = Duration from February 2006 to February 2008
P1Y2M15DT12H30M/19850412T232050 (or in standard format: PnYnMnDTnHnMnS/CCYYMMDDThhmmss) = A period of one year, 2 months, 15 days and 12 and a half hours, ending on 12 April 1985 at 20 minutes and 50 seconds past 23 hours. (As helpfully explained on the ISO 8601 standard’s first edition of 15 June 1988. I mean, 1988-06-15. I mean, 1988.06.15, as per my preferred notation.)
Quote
Old format: “I am just going outside. I may be some time.” — Lawrence Oates
New format: “I am just going outside. I may be P - - - - .” — Lawrence ISOates (And remember folks, you heard it here first! 
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