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

[Jacob Wisor]

Am 24.03.2015 um 17:12 schrieb 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 But, if Java is to follow the CLDR blindly then this discussions is obsolete, I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. ;-)

Hmm, according to http://www.din-5008-richtlinien.de/datum.php "Mär." should be 
actually correct. So, the CLDR seems to be correct but missing the dot suffix. 
But then, the CLDR may have a policy on suffixes to abbreviations and this patch 
looks to be okay then.

Regards,
Jacob