This is the mail archive of the
docbook@lists.oasis-open.org
mailing list for the DocBook project.
Re: RFE: Date Format
- To: Colin Paul Adams <colin at colina dot demon dot co dot uk>
- Subject: Re: DOCBOOK: RFE: Date Format
- From: David Lloyd <lloy0076 at rebel dot net dot au>
- Date: Sun, 07 Jan 2001 23:24:04 +1030
- Cc: docbook at lists dot oasis-open dot org
- References: <3A57C363.AA75E30F@rebel.net.au> <m3d7dzwxpk.fsf@colina.demon.co.uk>
Damn! Confound!
> Not a good guess:
I spend too much time in blasted Unix C land where array indices being
at 0 and not 1 :-(
> 1) There is and never was a year 0 - The Common Era (C.E. a.k.a. A.D.)
> begins in year 1.
Agreed. Wholeheartedly.
> 2) Whilst it is unlikely that the LDP would need it, it is possible
> that people using DocBook might wish to refer to dates Before the
> Common Era (B.C.E. a.k.a. B.C.).
Yes.
> So I suggest the valid value for the year be any non-zero interger
> (negative values to be treated as B.C.E. dates).
An alternative is that there is a setting:
<era>
</era>
Which could take a default value of AD. This has a big advantage because
it takes into account:
* Buddhist's take a different year as "Year 1"
* Islamic people take a different year as "Year 1"
And we avoid that cultural war...
DL
--
You're too late...