[whatwg] Dates and coordinates in HTML5

[Andy Mabbett]

In message <619D9F095A7941EEBCBB05FD4B03F523 at pirate>, WeBMartians 
<webmartians at verizon.net> writes

>Although it can be argued that a standard should not consider the work 
>required for implementation, many of the trade-offs in reference to 
>times and dates do indeed take the present state of code into 
>consideration.

What's the expected end-of-life date for HTML5? Do we really want to 
hamstring ourselves 'til then, by considering only current, as-of-2009, 
capabilities?

>One reason for not supporting BCE is a disagreement between historians 
>and, say, astronomers, on how to represent the year immediately 
>preceding year one. Is it year -1 (1 BCE) or year zero?

ISO 8601 is, I understand, unequivocal on that matter.

[...]

>I do see the "no BCE" compromise as a workable one.

That's an interesting use of "compromise"!

-- 
Andy Mabbett