Re: order of time elements in date-time groups

["Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" <lojbab@lojban.org>]

At 09:24 PM 9/30/99 -0400, BestATN@aol.com wrote:
> >  de'i li 29/09/99 ti'u li 8:34 la xorxes cusku di'e
>
>The order of the time elements in dates and times should be consistent, all
>increasing in size or all decreasing.  Thus if a date is given as 29/09/99,
>as in the above example, then the time after it should be given as 34:8.
>Conversely, if the time is taken as the standard, then the date should be
>99/09/29.
>
>I prefer the latter order, because all our place-value number systems give
>the largest elements first and decrease to the smallest.
>
>My understanding is that Lojban gives the smallest unit first because it's
>easier to leave off the others when they are unnecessary.  To me this is not
>a compelling reason to be inconsistent, especially in a language which is
>consistent to an extreme.

If Lojban were only a written language, that type of argument would be 
fine.  But the conventions of spoken forms in most languages are to 
ellipsize unneeded information whenever possible to save breath and 
time.  Lojban's unambiguity requires that ellipsis be regularized, and that 
regularization has been that trailing information is omitted.

To follow the ISO standard would condemn Lojbanists to having to state the 
full year and month every time they want to give a date, and likewise the 
time to the second whenever they want to give a time.  Imagine in English 
having to say "I have a doctors appointment on One thousand Nine hundred 
Ninety Nine, October first, at eleven hours and zero minutes and zero 
seconds." vs. "I have an appointment on the first at eleven."

lojbab
----
lojbab                     ***NOTE NEW ADDRESS***           lojbab@lojban.org
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