Localisation - Internationalization Package

[Richard Gaskin]

R.H. wrote:

 > Dear Richard
 >
 > Thanks a lot for the input regarding the dateFormat function. Very
 > nice.
 >
 > To add: It is also helpful to
 >
 > ... set the useSystemDate to true...
 >
 > and then also the local date format such as dd.mm.yyyy evaluates to
 > true when asking if it is a date, or not.

The useSystemDate global property is very helpful in many contexts, but 
as you wrote earlier it's difficult to use it to understand the local 
format because it outputs only results from the local format, but 
doesn't tell us the underlying pattern used to create that output.

The example you raised with month and day combos differing between 
regions is a good one:

Is "2/4/19" describing April 2 or February 4?

We can guess, and hope that we're right, but it's a crap shoot.

When the team added the dateFormat function, now we have a chance to see 
not just the output from the local format, but to understand its definition.

In some ways this is better, certainly more specific, than guessing the 
format by attempting to determine the local geographic region, because 
even if the user has chosen system settings that may differ from 
regional norms the dateFormat will reflect the user's current choices, 
obtained directly from those system settings.

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Systems
  Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
  ____________________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com                http://www.FourthWorld.com