Loosen the rules of dates format in the SoTD

[siusin]

https://www.w3.org/pubrules/doc/rules/?profile=WD#datesFormat

@plehegar and I had a discussion on an issue about Dates Format in the SoTD this week. We propose to loosen the dates format as long as it isn't ambiguous:

• this will only affect the dates in the header and SoTD;
• DD MM YYYY is not allowed, f.ex, 08-09-2022, 08092022;
• any date with letters is allowed, f.ex, 08-Sep-2022, 08 September 2022.

[jennyliang220]

Hi @siusin, it's possible to change the format of the dates if there's an agreement, include allowing 20220714YYYYMMDD used in this PR

The major date formats are mentioned in Wikipedia:

• day–month formats such as "5 October 2022" (05/10/22, 05/10/2022, 05-10-2022 or 05.10.2022) not allowed as mentioned above
• month–day formats such as "October 5, 2022" (10/05/22 or 10/05/2022)
• The ISO 8601 format YYYY-MM-DD (2022-10-05)

...however, there are more cases mentioned in this Oracle doc. Pubrules currently accept D Month Yr(variation of Line J in doc).
@plehegar @deniak any ideas?

[deniak]

https://www.w3.org/pubrules/doc/rules/?profile=WD#datesFormat

@plehegar and I had a discussion on an issue about Dates Format in the SoTD this week. We propose to loosen the dates format as long as it isn't ambiguous:

* this will only affect the dates in the header and SoTD;

Where would such date format appear in the header? Also, it seems odd to allow this new format in the SotD but not in the rest of the document. Currently, the rule checks the data format in the whole document.

* DD MM YYYY is not allowed, f.ex, 08-09-2022, 08092022;

* any date with letters is allowed, f.ex, 08-Sep-2022, 08 September 2022.

We should be able to update the regex to allow this format.

[siusin]

If I understand correctly, @plehegar agreed we shouldn't check the dates format in other parts of the document except for the SoTD and the header, it's up to the Editors to decide which dates format they prefer in the content.