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Sure, it's a tough problem. The resolution to my complaint is a proper ISO 8601 implementation for Ruby.

Which I'll probably have to write. ;)

ISO 8601 is large standard and predates the internet (as we know it) and seems like an attempt of formalizing all the many different ways people expressed dates (on physical papers in addition to computer systems), and also some ways no-one would ever use.

I think you’ll find a lot of APIs (or formats) claiming to support an “ISO 8601 date” when in fact they mean a date of the form “YYYY-MM-DD” — it’s a common misunderstanding, but I think better that, than actually allowing the full range of dates allowed by the actual ISO 8601 standard :)

Oh sure, I know the full extent of the madness. At a previous job I was working with XML Schema durations to represent energy emissions data. It gives me bad memories.

Perhaps a useful compromise would be to implement W3C's ISO-8601 profile http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-datetime

My God. The W3C actually made something simpler. Drastically simpler; simple enough to write down on one page. Mind you, it's just a note that someone else submitted, and the W3C hasn't formally discussed it, let alone blessed it -- but even so, it's heartening.

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