<i18n dev> [9] RFR: 8075173: DateFormat in german locale returns wrong value for month march

[Jacob Wisor]

Am 24.03.2015 um 10:29 schrieb Masayoshi Okutsu:
> Hi,
>
> Please review the fix for 8075173. There's an inconsistent month abbreviation
> between the traditional JDK resources and CLDR-derived ones. We decided to take
> the CLDR one, Mär.

After looking into the CLDR and comparing with some existing operating systems I 
am unsure whether the CLDR is actually correct, so that the abbreviated form 
should probably be Mrz indeed.

Regardless of what some operating systems are printing, it just looks strange to 
me that the CLDR abbreviated form of März is Mär. Usually, ÄÖÜ (the umlauts) are 
dropped first when building abbreviated forms because they are an abbreviation 
themselves already and they should also be avoided in abbreviations in general. 
Ä is short for AE, Ö for OE, and Ü for UE. The German judiciary system and the 
military are probably the heaviest users of abbreviations and the German 
language. And, while doing so they typically avoid having any umlauts or ß 
(U+00DF small letter sharp S) in any abbreviations.

As always, I may be wrong and the DIN 5008 norm does sufficiently specify 
abbreviated month names. However, I do not have access to the full DIN 5008 text 
to verify because it is behind a pay wall. It is also very likely that the 
German administration (the bureaucracy) has evolved some "proper" form of 
abbreviation for months because it is full of abbreviations. However, a DIN or 
any German administrative regulation would apply to the de_DE locale only. I do 
not know how to deal with the default de locale and the other de_XX locales in 
this case.

But, if Java is to follow the CLDR blindly then this discussions is obsolete, I 
guess. ;-)

Regards,
Jacob