Inconsistencies with date formatting across GitLab
Problem
We're using various date formats across GitLab. See examples in this Mural. Please contribute any other screenshots you come across that are relevant.
Links / references
The GitLab Communication page in the handbook states the following:
Always use ISO dates in all writing and legal documents since other formats lead to online confusion. Use
yyyy-mm-dd
, for example 2015-04-13, and never 04-13-2015, 13-04-2015, 2015/04/13, nor April 13, 2015. Even if you use an unambiguous alternative format it is still harder to search for a date, sort on a date, and for other team members to know we use the ISO standard. For months useyyyy-mm
, so 2018-01 for January. Refer to a year with CY18 (never with 2018) and a quarter with CY18-Q1 to prevent confusion with fiscal years and quarters.
However, I'm not sure if this is relevant for use in the UI or not.
Solution
Define a standard format for dates across GitLab and document in Pajamas, including but perhaps not limited to, the tables and charts component specifications. We should consider 1) internationalization and 2) whether or not different formats should be used for different components; for example, charts, tables, etc.
I'll let the technical writing team determine if appropriate, but this should also probably be documented in our Documentation Style Guide.