Bug 4098 - pl_PL, Roman numbers as abbreviated month names
Summary: pl_PL, Roman numbers as abbreviated month names
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: glibc
Classification: Unclassified
Component: localedata (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
: P2 normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: GNU C Library Locale Maintainers
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2007-02-25 10:37 UTC by Łukasz Stelmach
Modified: 2015-01-29 13:27 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

See Also:
Host:
Target:
Build:
Last reconfirmed:
fweimer: security-


Attachments
Roman numbers as abmon (25.33 KB, image/png)
2007-02-25 10:40 UTC, Łukasz Stelmach
Details

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Description Łukasz Stelmach 2007-02-25 10:37:43 UTC
I updated my pl_PL data yesterday and I found it quite amusing ;-) that Roman
numbers have been used as abbreviated month (abmon) names. However, it looks
quite nice, there is one, I might suspect, unpredicted problem. There seem to be
a tradition that abbreviations were exactly three characters long. Some
programmes (e.g. mc) *assume* such constraint and fail to display dates
properly, especially August causes some problems (see attachment). I suggest to
revert that change back to what was in 1.18.

I am also not sure weather weekdays (abday) abbreviations should be in capital
letters but I am also not convinced that they shouldn't.
Comment 1 Łukasz Stelmach 2007-02-25 10:40:13 UTC
Created attachment 1580 [details]
Roman numbers as abmon

Notice the misalignment in the date column and especially bad effect in case of
gnucash (in the left panel).
Comment 2 Ulrich Drepper 2007-04-28 08:02:52 UTC
It is a bug in the program if it assumes three letter abbreviations.  I'm not
going to revert anything.  If you have problems fight it out with the person who
proposed the change.  But do not make a decision based on the broken program's
behavior.
Comment 3 Marcin 'Qrczak' Kowalczyk 2007-05-19 15:30:37 UTC
I would like to confirm that the new date format is the most appropriate for
Polish, with Roman numerals as months, capitalized two-letter abbreviations of
week days (except "N" = Sunday), and "day month year" order. Even though other
formats are used too. Thank you for the change.

Indeed mc has a problem.

BTW, Polish always uses Roman numerals for standalone centuries. There is no
locale entry for that, and probably no need.
Comment 4 Zbigniew Luszpinski 2007-09-25 20:15:37 UTC
(In reply to comment #2)
> It is a bug in the program if it assumes three letter abbreviations.  I'm not
> going to revert anything.  If you have problems fight it out with the person who
> proposed the change.  But do not make a decision based on the broken program's
> behavior.

pl_PL-LC_TIME.patch from bug #3156 broke everything. Bad date format breaks mc
and other programs, makes users nervous. Every programmer knows about: "garbage
on input == garbage on output". You can not blame software for breakage when bad
date is provided somewhere else.

If Roman month numbering for Polish locales will not be removed from glibc we
will remove it on end user level by patching glibc sources before compilation stage.

Roman month numbering is present in Poland only in documents as artistic effect
(together with gothic font and A.D. (Anno Domini) prefix before date).

I understand some people find Roman month numbering nice looking (like gothic
font) but this minority can not force their taste to whole community and break:
-data processing of applications and system scripts,
-National standard PN-EN 28601:2002 which is the same as ISO 8601:2004,
-Date format present everywhere in paper documents.

I ask glibc developers for reverting pl_PL-LC_TIME.patch from bug #3156 to
restore valid date format by removing Roman month numbering.
Comment 5 Ulrich Drepper 2007-10-14 20:52:13 UTC
I've changed the data according to the results of the vote.