Homebrew-cask: Could we change the cask update deprecation message to use a more ordered date?

[numbermaniac]

I don't know whether 2017-07-01 is referring to 1 July or 7 January to be honest; I think it'd be better if the deprecation notice used a date format like "7 January 2017" so no ambiguity in the format.

[miccal]

If you think this is an odd request, note that @Numbermaniac and myself (and @fanquake I believe) are in Australia, and we read 07-01 as the 7th of January, where others around the world may read 07-01 as the 1st of July.

Edit: Actually, according to Wikipedia Day-Month is more frequent than Month-Day.

[vitorgalvao]

Actually, according to Wikipedia Day-Month is more frequent than Month-Day.

American conventions are outdated and crazy, and they stand mostly alone.

For reference, the format in that date is ISO 8601 (see discussion). I’d be fine with something that calls the month by name.

[MikeTheCanuck]

Having grown up in a non-American country (Canada to be precise), 2017-01-07 is exactly unambiguous to me and many of my countrypeoples. ISO 8601 is very clear, and I'm surprised that someone from Australia finds ISO 8601 date format confusing - has America infected the world with this much uncertainty around dates? Shame on them. [Edit: no offense intended to a fellow member of the Commonwealth - this is just the first time I've seen someone other than an American complain about ISO 8601 date order.]

Please do not regress on the march towards ISO 8601 universality - it's as ordered as you can get (it sorts correctly every time, it reads from largest to smallest, and it follows convention used around most of the world).

[vitorgalvao]

has America infected the world with this much uncertainty around dates?

Yes, they have.

Shame on them.

Shaming them does not accomplish anything, though.

ISO 8601 universality (…) and it follows convention used around most of the world

No one in this issue is disputing the merits of ISO 8601 or arguing it shouldn’t be universal. However, none of that helps. Seeing 2017-01-07 and wishing it’s ISO 8601 does nothing.

Just over half of the maintainers of this project are from outside the US. Yet, by convention we still default to the American-english version of software when there is an alternative, because it makes sense to do so. There’s no reason to assume right out the bat that we use ISO 8601.

I do agree with your sentiment, just not with your argument. Yes, it would be great if we could all use the same agreed upon system. Unfortunately, computer system are made by humans (obligatory XKCD).

In sum, here’s the main flaw in your argument: this message is to be read by humans, not machines. Ambiguity matters not because the code breaks, but because users are confused.

[reitermarkus]

In the future, let's just use the 15^th of the month. 😂