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From: rokicki@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki)
Newsgroups: comp.text,comp.std.internat
Subject: Re: All numeric representation of dates
Message-ID: <3782@polya.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 30 Aug 88 19:12:38 GMT
References: <189@dcs.UUCP> <2903@hubcap.UUCP>
Organization: Stanford University
Lines: 49

. I submit that the form MM/DD/YY, an all-numeric form, is much 
. more widely used than all the alphabetic-month-representation
. forms put together.

I would have to disagree with this.  I never see business letters
dated `5/12/88' or such, computer dates are always `Jan 30',
postmarks use either `Aug 26' or `26 Aug', etc.  No, alphabetic
dates are definitely prevalent.

. I submit that the standard we are discussing will be viewed
. as totally natural after adoption; if the verbal month-names
. are almost never encountered, they will come to be viewed as
. unnatural, and a waste of writing time and space. 

I certainly hope not!  I like the names of the months, like
the names of the days of the week.  When a strictly numeric
date format is adopted, the world will be lesser for it.

When I ask the computer for the date and time, I prefer

12:05 on Wednesday, 12 March 1943

infinitely over

W 19430312.12:05

or any such.  Much easier to read.

. It is quite obvious that Esperanto is superior to English;

Obvious to whom, and for what purpose?  Esperanto, in my
opinion, is ugly.  I like English, for all of its
inconsistencies.  Writing English is an art.  Shakespeare
is beautiful; a translation of Shakespeare to Esperanto
or even modern english loses so much of its nature.

It is precisely the rich nature of English that is lacking
in Esperanto that allows such rich and subtle thoughts to
be easily and concisely expressed.  English words have a
long history of usage from which they have derived their
connotations if not their total meanings; the last thing
we need is a prescriptive language, totally lacking in a
history or culture.

I am disheartened enough by the disappearence of the
subjunctive in modern English.  Don't even think about
teaching Esperanto to my kids.

-tom