topic Date and time presentation on SqirrelMail in Plusnet Feedback

Date and time presentation on SqirrelMail

lesleyjoan — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 11:57:57 GMT

Whilst recognising that it is an ineluctable part of Squirrelmail protocol, a uniform method of presenting date and time in the current file headings would be an improvement. For example, today's mail might show Fri, 10:05am; last week the display would read Mar18, 2011. Why not show eg 25/03/2011 1156? Simple and economical.

Re: Date and time presentation on SqirrelMail

MauriceC — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 14:51:49 GMT

Quote from: lesleyjoan
. Why not show eg 25/03/2011 1156? Simple and economical.

'cos that would confuse many users who prefer the MM/DD/YYYY presentation?
The ISO standard recommends YYYYMMDD as being universal and unambiguous as well as being more easily sortable. This debate like the Summer Time discussion has been going on for years and still no end in sight.
Maurice

Re: Date and time presentation on SqirrelMail

spraxyt — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 18:15:35 GMT

Quote from: lesleyjoan
For example, today's mail might show Fri, 10:05am; last week the display would read Mar18, 2011. Why not show eg 25/03/2011 1156? Simple and economical.

When presenting information in columns it is always a challenge to balance field widths and the relevance of the information. The existing style of day and time for the last 7 days, date only before that seems a reasonable compromise to me. One has the option of selecting "always show full date" in Options->Display Preferences, but time information for recent messages is then lost.
Perhaps the option to add times to full date might be welcomed by some users but it's not something I'd be seeking for this type of application.

Re: Date and time presentation on SqirrelMail

lesleyjoan — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 18:10:51 GMT

To Spraxyt
Many thanks for date and time steer.
Lesleyjoan

Re: Date and time presentation on SqirrelMail

itsme — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 19:12:55 GMT

Quote from: MauriceC

'cos that would confuse many users who prefer the MM/DD/YYYY presentation?

Don't that format confuse the majority of the world Population, it's only the USA that use the MM/DD/YYYY format.

Re: Date and time presentation on SqirrelMail

adamwalker — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 09:29:32 GMT

Quote
it's only the USA that use the MM/DD/YYYY format.

Not strictly true but it is the US format for dates and granted us folks this side of the pond don't favour it.
If being honest I can't see this being changed as we're overhauling webmail entirely. One worth being aware of though.

Re: Date and time presentation on SqirrelMail

MauriceC — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 09:46:33 GMT

Quote from: _Adam_Walker_

If being honest I can't see this being changed as we're overhauling webmail entirely. One worth being aware of though.

Isn't this piece of rationale wearing a bit thin now Adam? It would improve significantly if Plusnet could add some committed time frame for Investigation / Pilot / Roll-out but as of last time of seeking an answer ???????
Can you push for a sensible response please.
Ta.
Maurice

Re: Date and time presentation on SqirrelMail

adamwalker — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 10:30:20 GMT

Quote
Isn't this piece of rationale wearing a bit thin now Adam?

I'm sorry but this is the case, I don't mean to come across as being matter-of-fact but this won't change I'm afraid.

Re: Date and time presentation on SqirrelMail

itsme — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:38:44 GMT

Quote from: _Adam_Walker_
Quote
it's only the USA that use the MM/DD/YYYY format.

Not strictly true but it is the US format for dates and granted us folks this side of the pond don't favour it.

Can you name me another country that use MM/DD/YYYY?
When I was designing a product for an International market and we did not wish to complicate the firmware by having the option to change the date format we thought a comprise would be to have the USA date format of MM/DD/YYYY as most Europeans are more intelligent to be able to work with this and use a 24h format for time. How wrong we were, the USA use the 12h clock and we had to add a conversion table to the manual to convert 24h to 12h. The Americans called the 24h format Military Time.

Re: Date and time presentation on SqirrelMail

Strat — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:25:32 GMT

Quite a complicated business http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_format_by_country

Re: Date and time presentation on SqirrelMail

adamwalker — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:34:48 GMT

That answers that then, how they get on in countries where both are accepted I've no idea!

Re: Date and time presentation on SqirrelMail

pierre_pierre — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:09:13 GMT

thats why I use 28Mar2011

Re: Date and time presentation on SqirrelMail

itsme — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:59:34 GMT

Off topic slightly, if you require a standing ordert to go out on the last day of the month then when filling out the standing order either state the last day of the month or use 31 no matter the number of days in the month. I made this mistake a few years ago when I was changing a mandate in February and put the 28th Feb. So the repeat withdrawals was going out on the 28th but my salary was not being paid in until the 31st.