"This data should be written XYZ."
"Fool, it's much better to write it as XZY."
"Technically you're both wrong, ZYX makes much more sense."
"Wow, looks no one knows what they're talking about. Y should always come first, so we use YXZ."
The debate over dates is very similar to endianness in computer science (and just as trivial). The data's the same in both cases, it's just that the order is shifted. In cases like these, the order can't be "wrong" because if the data is processed as intended, the results come out the same way. Fun fact: the term endianness is derived from Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels", where the peoples of one island argued whether it was best to crack an egg from the small end or the big end. 18th century British literature ftw. The order really only has any relevance when you're trying to communicate information to others. Personally, I just long-hand it nowadays on everything but forms (like at the doctor's office). There's no ambiguity about November 20th, 2013 (unless you factor in Time Zones
)
Just to explain to all the folks that don't get why Americans use MM-DD-YYYY, this format best mimics how we speak (at least over here?). When someone asks you the date, the full spoken response would be "Today's November 20th, 2013", thus we use MM-DD-YYYY. I majored in English, so my U.S. history is pretty sketchy, but I'm pretty sure we fought a big whole war with Britain in the late 18th century over stuff like that.
"Fool, it's much better to write it as XZY."
"Technically you're both wrong, ZYX makes much more sense."
"Wow, looks no one knows what they're talking about. Y should always come first, so we use YXZ."
The debate over dates is very similar to endianness in computer science (and just as trivial). The data's the same in both cases, it's just that the order is shifted. In cases like these, the order can't be "wrong" because if the data is processed as intended, the results come out the same way. Fun fact: the term endianness is derived from Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels", where the peoples of one island argued whether it was best to crack an egg from the small end or the big end. 18th century British literature ftw. The order really only has any relevance when you're trying to communicate information to others. Personally, I just long-hand it nowadays on everything but forms (like at the doctor's office). There's no ambiguity about November 20th, 2013 (unless you factor in Time Zones
)Just to explain to all the folks that don't get why Americans use MM-DD-YYYY, this format best mimics how we speak (at least over here?). When someone asks you the date, the full spoken response would be "Today's November 20th, 2013", thus we use MM-DD-YYYY. I majored in English, so my U.S. history is pretty sketchy, but I'm pretty sure we fought a big whole war with Britain in the late 18th century over stuff like that.