Re: Arabic date format and Microsoft programs

On 10/15/2011 05:19 PM, Andreas Prilop wrote:
> I return to
> http://www.unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/y2011-m10/att-0059/1999-12-31.html
>
> Microsoft programs (Internet Explorer, MS Word), display this as
> 31/12/1999
>
> Other programs (Firefox, Opera, OpenOffice) display this as
> 1999/12/31

Given that the bidi category of U+002F is CS, 1999/12/31 seems to be the
correct rendering following rule W4 of the Bidi Algorithm: "A single
common separator between two numbers of the same type changes to that type".

Note that this changed in version 4.0.1 of Unicode -- before that the
category of U+002F was ES, which would make the correct rendering
31/12/1999 as in Microsoft programs. I can't find any archived
discussion on why this particular change was made; IIRC the change of
the bidi category of U+002D from ET to ES that was made at the same time
was intended to *increase* consistency between Unicode conformant
applications and the de facto bidi implementation in Microsoft programs.
Received on Mon Oct 17 2011 - 01:47:04 CDT