date format

[Richard T. Eger]

Dear Nick,

For the reason you cite, I sometimes use the dot convention, especially if mailing to someone in Europe. That said, my guess is that there are a whole lot of us from the U.S. and, although the U.S. government has dabled in trying to get us to go metric, it hasn't taken. So, it is what it is.

Fortunately, 99+% of what we write here is in English. But, we have a whole lot of members who don't have English as their primary language, but have either learned it well or try as best they can to write here in broken English. Just imagine the mess we would really be in if everyone wrote in their native tongue!!!

The irony is even greater, as we are discussing historical events in Germany where English was certainly not the native tongue. We even have documents written in Sütterlin or a basterdized version thereof and need to come hat in hand to those that actually understand this very old version of German.

Put into perspective, what date convention is used is an annoyance, one we can certainly live with. For those willing to make the effort to be better understood in this regard, we should be grateful. If a scan of the original German document is provided, we know automatically that it follows the day-month-year convention.

Regards,
Richard