PE> It's less confusing than any other format in the world anyway,
PE> because you have no idea about any of the others, but there is
PE> only one of these, and it's your duty to know it, as much as
PE> it's your duty to know metric, English and your international
PE> phone number.

ac> Would you mind translating that, please?

It is your public duty as a citizen of the world to:

1. Read, write + speak English
2. Be able to use the metric system
3. Know your international phone number, e.g. my BBS is 
   +61-2-436-1785
4. Know how to read/write ISO standard dates, ie YYYY-MM-DD.   

ac>>   '01-Jan-1995' for January 1st, 1995
ac>>   '28-Apr-1995' for April 28th, 1995

PE> If you want to spell it out, fine.

ac> I do.  Once spelt out it is virtually impossible to misinterpret.

PE> Useless for doing sorting though.

ac> Sorting?  Who ever mentioned anything about sorting?  Next thing
ac> you'll be telling me it won't reheat your pizza, just to suit
ac> your argument.

Let's put it this way, there's a reason people use numbers for
the month in dates, digital watches, etc, and if you want to do
that, fine, there's only one unambiguous numeric date format.

ac> Can you state your aim, please?

World-wide unambiguity.

PE> The ISO date format is useful IF you want to use all
PE> numbers.

ac> Using all-numeric formats confuse humans; phone numbers, pin
ac> numbers, CompuServe addresses, FidoNet addresses, etc.  They are
ac> difficult to interpret, and difficult to remember.

ac> Or are you only interested in the positive effect it will have on
ac> digital equipment, ignoring any negative social aspects?

People use numbers in social aspects.  In Australia we use DD/MM/YY,
which is confusing internationally.

PE> No other all-numeric date format should be allowed.

ac> Allowed _where_?

In international echos for starters, which can be any of them.  
BFN.  Paul.
@EOT:

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