Dates on Diagram Notes

[Paolo F Cantoni]

I've just noticed that on EA (6.5/803) the dates on the Diagram Notes (that is, as opposed to the Details on Diagram which don;t have dates) are in US format (mm/dd/yy).

This is disconcerting as the machine is set up for Australian dates.  Is there any way to control this?

I only spotted it, because it's obvious that 1/24/07 isn't a dd/mm/yy date...

No confusion please!
Paolo

[«Midnight»]

Actually important. I understand this was recently relevant in the context of Y2K. Perhaps nobody had time to read the Lessons Learned from that one.

At the very least one could hope that they'd use yyyy-mm-dd to match international standards, since the user community comes from there.

[EDIT: Another usable setting would be the Windows default Short Data setting of the current user - at either creation or rendering, which remains to be determined. I tested this, since US date is often the Windows default; it is not being picked up by EA.]

[Jan ´Bary´ Glas]

For our purposes is Windows default a priority. We use d.m.rrrr format and our customers as well

[mikewhit]

It's the standard Windows application shortcoming of ignoring global settings.

How many times have you had to manually release a print job because you 'forgot' to change the default paper for a newly installed application to 'A4' from 'Letter', even though your Control Panel settings would suggest otherwise ?

Grrr.

[Eve]

I can't see where EA is displaying a date on the diagram notes.  (Although there is a place it currently displays US dates on my computer in the diagram properties dialog.)

I was thinking though, would using the windows date style really be a good idea.  If you do it at rendering then the diagrams appear different depending on the computer they are being viewed (or more importantly being generated to documentation) on.

On the other hand if you do it at creation then you may end up with a mix of date styles between diagrams on not being able to tell the actual date.

So I would say that the format for any date shown in a diagram should be standardised (and configurable) for a model, except that then you have issues with disparity between the dates shown in dialogs and the dates shown in diagrams.

In short, It's not that simple.

[Paolo F Cantoni]

In short, It's not that simple.

Agreed Simon, but while it's NOT configurable - it's WRONG!...

Especially when just 3mm above the diagram notes, the title band shows the same information in a different date format!  (dd/mm/yy in my case...)

I'll formally submit a bug...
Paolo
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[Paolo F Cantoni]

Reported...

The general consensus seems to be to allow the selection of the current windows options (both long and short).  I'd also like to see the ability to add time of day, if required.

These options would allow different renderings on different machines.

Additionally, there is a need to be able to specify a fixed format (for all machines) - say along the lines of the date format dialog in MS Excel (which also allows the creation of custom date formats).

Other suggestions invited.  I've asked the Sparxians to refer to this topic...

It has to be checked on each rendering...

Paolo

[Eve]

Agreed Simon, but while it's NOT configurable - it's WRONG!...

Yes, I agree.  My apologies, I didn't make that clear in my post.

I think the most logical solution would be to always display using the current regional settings and then companies could dictate policies regarding date format used for all documentation generation across all models.

[Paolo F Cantoni]

Yes, I agree.  My apologies, I didn't make that clear in my post.

I think the most logical solution would be to always display using the current regional settings and then companies could dictate policies regarding date format used for all documentation generation across all models.

That's a good interim solution, Simon, but it's not enough.  The diagrams may need to go to machines not within the control of the company. (How many companies do you know that mandate date formats - AND POLICE THEM??)

Paolo

[Paolo F Cantoni]

I've received a response from Sparx.  Apparently the defect crept in in build 800, the fix will revert to the previous behaviour, based on the locale setting.

FYI,
Paolo