Date formats

Date format across fsf.org and gnu.org are inconsistent. Consistency would make the pages look nicer and give better experience for the reader.

Adjustments are not allways trivial, due to the software generating the pages. Some software does not easily allow ISO 8601 conform formats.

format examples for fsf.org and gnu.org

• YYYY-MM-DD (ISO 8601)
  • no time
    • http://directory.fsf.org/
  • YYYY-MM-DD h?:m?:i? (ISO 8601)
    • http://gplv3.fsf.org/doclic-dd1-guide.html - last modified 2006-09-26 14:52
    • http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/ - 2008-10-20 14:12:37 -0400
  • YYYY-MM-DD h?:m? AM/PM
    • http://www.fsf.org/about/ - "Last modified 2008-04-28 11:42 AM" (plone?)
• YYYY/MM/DD
  • http://www.gnu.org/ - Last Updated: $Date: 2008/10/15 20:49:51 $ (CVS)
• MMMM DD, YYYY
  • http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-fdisk/2008-10/index.html - October 03, 2008 (MHonArc)
• D MMMM YYYY
  • http://groups.fsf.org - This page was last modified 16:01, 7 October 2008. (mediawiki)
  • http://gplv3.fsf.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page - This page was last modified 17:48, 12 December 2007. (mediawiki)
• D MMM, YYYY
  • http://directory.fsf.org/project/phpmyadmin/ - Last updated 9 Dec, 2005, Versions - Released: 7 Dec, 2005

involved software

• CVS: Yavor Doganov: The gnu.org website uses CVS, and timestamps are the $Date$ RCS keyword, expanded by the CVS server. The format is hardcoded in CVS' source code (src/rcs.c, the `printable_date' function).
• Mediawiki: needs hardcoding in php includes, but is achievable.