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Hello!

> I suggest that we not get
> sidetracked into engineering
> a solution, until someone
> speaks up and claims that
> this is a requirement.
I agree and don't aim at engineering a solution. Some clarifications about 
the "philosophy" behind the specs may be useful, though.

> > uuuu-uu-uu/1760-12-03
> [...] Is it an interval or a specific date?
Is it obvious how long time something needs to take to be considered 
taking an interval of time?

> > (replacing "2011-03-10" by the day
> > when the document came to the library or
> > archive, etc. or another appropriate day)
> That's a completely separate use case
I wrote "or another appropriate day", meaning a day which for sure was 
after the end. This was of course never intended to be a primary way to 
store the acquisition date. (read below)

> 20040101/ Does anyone see a problem
I consider that the notation is OK. But, are such open-ended intervals 
really useful? My aim is to avoid what I call "self-destructivity of 
stored information", that is, information stored in such a way that it 
looses its accuracy with time (no matter the specific notation used). I 
quote:

> A syntax like ".ea.1760-12-03" contains
> an uncertainity growing with time. In one
> year or 500 years, the reader of the
> notation ".ea.1760-12-03" will be given a
> larger incertainity than a reader is
> given today. Expressed an other way: The
> quality (or accuracy) of the information
> stored through the notation
> ".ea.1760-12-03" is not preserved as time
> goes. I consider that preservation is one
> of the main goals for libraries, museums,
> archives etc.

I consider that closing the "end side" of the interval protects the 
information from further loss of accuracy.

Regards!

SaaĊĦha,