Date and time format

[Mica Mijatovic]

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    Was Fri, 07 Apr 2006, at 13:55:47 +0400,
    when lusfert wrote:

> John W. Moore III wrote on 07.04.2006 2:37:
>> David Shaw wrote:
>>
>>>> OS setting via LC_TIME, according to Microsoft, though I have no idea
>>>> how to set it on win32.
>>
>> Right Click on the Clock, Select Setting Time/Date.
>>
> http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/someuser00/right_click_on_clock.png
> Where is "Setting Time/Date"?

> Then I clicked Adjust Date/Time:
> http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/someuser00/date_and_time_settings.png

> Where can I set date format (via LC_TIME)?

Since you use XP, then...

Control Panel | Regional and Language Options | Regional Options |
Customize... | Time.

The next tab is for the Date format.

Clicking on the Clock (squatting in the tray) makes you able just to
"wind up" the clock and to set the Time Zone.

                                  ***

These settings are automatically accepted then by the "command line"
environment in XP as well, and thus should be accepted by all programs
working in this/such environment.

                                  ***

In Windows 98 SE for instance, the time/date format in DOS is set in a
different way(s). One of them is to define a permanent environment
variable via Config.sys file where you enter the "country code", which
defines time/date format.

It looks like this...

country=038,,c:\Windows\command\country.sys

...and this one gives format like this...

yyyy-mm-dd HH:mm:ss

...where the capitalized "HH" gives 24 hours time format while the lower
case "hh" gives 12 hour AM/PM format.

                                  ***

Now, some previous versions of GnuPG are, with the US time format,
displaying verbosely (the local) Time Zone as well, which is a bit
better anyway, whilst the newer 1.4x versions are displaying only the US
format giving no data about Time Zone.

For instance, in version 1.2.3-nr1 it displays this...

gpg: Signature made 04/07/06 11:55:58 Central Europe Daylight Time using
DSA key ID 500B8987

...whilst in versions 1.4x it is like this...

gpg: Signature made 04/07/06 11:55:58 using DSA key ID 500B8987.

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The inconsistency in the, for instance, US date format (although it can
be found in some other countries as well), might be elegantly corrected
by using the so called "universal" or "astronomical" (or "military")
date/time format which makes such sort of orientation much clearer,
faster and better. It gives consistent values going from the higher to
lower ones, that is yy|yy, mm, dd, HH, mm, ss (century|year, month, day,
24hour information, minute, second), which makes it excellent for
computing/administration (and with minimum data; no PM, AM and similar).

I don't know how to solve this in GnuPG, or in some programs/parts of
the very OS. Notepad itself in XP for instance gives anyway a messed
format (via F5) displaying firstly time and then date...

14:38 06-04-07

...which makes it useless for the ".LOG" function, whilst EDXOR (and
some other programs like KeyNote, Treepad Lite etc.) gives it exactly as
it is set on the OS level...

06-04-07 14:38:44

...which shows that such a response of a program to the OS is possible.

I am not sure for EDXOR and Treepad Lite, but KeyNote is of open source
so analyzing the related parts of the code maybe might help.

- --
Mica
PGP keys nestled at: http://blueness.port5.com/pgpkeys/
~~~ For personal mail please use my address as it is *exactly* given
                 in my "From|Reply To" field(s). ~~~
Don't put a cat on your head, it hurts real bad!
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