[ebxml-dev] Re: [ISO8601] New Date Formats

[Brian Repko <brian_repko@hotmail.com>]

Stephen,

IMHO, ISO8601 is pretty clear on date, time, timestamp and duration
representations.  How a user of software enters these types of
information into a system will differ widely based on the software
and that is the responsibility of the software provider.  I really
don't see a need for a "standard" on that.

For example - some software may allow the user to enter "t+7" into
a date field for "today plus 7 days".  This is purely a software
HCF issue.

Also, there are standards on timezones and locales...and yes,
these need to be setup for software that is time sensitive.
The idea of calculating this based on zip code in the US is
completely unfeasible.  ZIP code boundaries change and there
are probably many instances where two timezones exist within
a single ZIP (especially considering summer time).

I would encourage your input to the appropriate ebXML group
on address data and whatever issues you have there.

If I'm not understanding something in your email, please help
clarify but I don't see the need for what you are recommending.

Brian Repko
Project Architect
nVISIA

Stephen Gould writes:
-----
This is why we are proposing a standard ISO 8601 format drop down
menu for SME ebXML software developers.

Most SMEs when they are setting up their systems do not put in the
time differential into their e-mail software programs.

The National Telecoms all provide telephone books with the time
differentials for each region.  Microsoft provides this as part of
the Windows operation system.

Perhaps a location code is required for E-business applications to
calculate the difference between GMT and local time.  This location
code could be provided by the ISP as part of the service.   This
could be the zip code in the US or postcode in UK and Australia.
It is part of the UN/EDIFACT address structure.



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