Gentle HP 3000 Listers,

Last week, I sent a message to the ISO informing them that I had found an
error in their 8601 standard.  I will not bore you with the details of my
message, suffice it to say that I informed them Sunday was the first day of
the week and had been for 1700 years and that Wednesday should be the
deciding day for the first week of the year.

On Friday last week, I received a message from the ISO saying they were
passing on the message to the appropriate person for review and action.

Today, I received an answer from a gentleman in the Netherlands.  Now, I
think it is important to follow the geography here.  ISO is in Switzerland.
 A German is the chairman of the committee for 8601.  My message was sent
to Switzerland and was first replied to from there.  My message was
forwarded from Switzerland to the secretariat of ISO/TC 154 who is in
Germany.  It was then forwarded to this gentleman who is, as I said, in the
Netherlands.

I will not put any names or e-mail addresses here because I certainly do
not want to bombard these people with comments from this list.

Without further ado, here is the message, verbatim.

<<Dear Mr. Beauchemin

In response to your remark on the numbering of days in the week in ISO
8601, let me assure you that the numbering currently in ISO 8601 is NOT an
error.

The identification of Monday as the first day of the week has been
established in ISO standards (ISO 8601 and its predecessors) at least since
1976.  My personal observation (for this region of the world) is that it is
also the common practice in agenda's, calendars etc.

The situation that Thursday is the day that determines which week is the
first week in the Gregorian Year
follows from this, as it is indicative for the year holding the largest
part of that week.

Regards,
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>>


Well there you have it folks.  ISO says that Monday is the first day of the
week.  ISO must be right, because they have made it a standard since 1976.
 It is further reinforced by the fact that agendas and calendars show it
that way in the Netherlands and surrounding area.  Now, I do not want to
sound provincial and nationalistic,   but Mr. Xx sure comes across as being
both.

Of course, I will reply to Mr. Xxxxxx and continue the dialog.  I seriously
doubt that ISO will change, but the answer I received is illuminating to
say the least.

BTW, Wayne Holt (the gentleman who introduced us to ISO 8601) and I are old
friends who take some corrupted and twisted pleasure in ribbing each other
when the occasion is right.  We have been corresponding about this issue
for a while now, and he has been sharing with me further information on
this day of the week issue.  He did not think I would get and answer
either.

Kind regards,

Denys. . .

Denys Beauchemin
Hicomp America, Inc.
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