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From: campbell@redsox.bsw.com (Larry Campbell)
Newsgroups: comp.std.internat
Subject: Re: What time is it? [Was: Data compression standard]
Message-ID: <1991Jun25.001607.28886@redsox.bsw.com>
Date: 25 Jun 91 00:16:07 GMT
References: <859@spam.ua.oz> <3761@sirius.ucs.adelaide.edu.au> <shores.677707660@fergvax>
Reply-To: campbell@redsox.bsw.com (Larry Campbell)
Organization: The Boston Software Works, Inc.
Lines: 20

I believe there is an ISO standard (sorry, don't know the number).  It's
very simple.  Dates and times are represented as a string of 12 to 16
decimal digits:

	YYYYMMDDHHMMSSHH

where the last two digits represent hundredths of a second;  I believe the
seconds, and hundredths of seconds, are optional.  You could, of course, add
as many trailing digits as you like, if you need to achieve nanosecond
precision, without ambiguity.

This format is completely unambiguous, is easily understood by both humans
and computers, sorts easily, is not Anglocentric, and is compact.

Of course, the time represented is assumed to be UTC, so no time zone
decorations are required.  Your user interface software should know how to
display this in the local time zone, in the local language.
-- 
Larry Campbell             The Boston Software Works, Inc., 120 Fulton Street
campbell@redsox.bsw.com    Boston, Massachusetts 02109 (USA)