Anyway, I see your point, but I don't agree. There is only need for an agreement when ambiguous formats are used, which is a good thing since ambiguous date formats are, as everyone here knows, a big pain in the butt.
Those who wrote the standard could, of course, have disallowed all formats which are ambiguous, but these formats are sometimes useful, so they allowed them on the condition that everone agrees on what the ambiguous formats are supposed to mean.
I have to say that I agree with Peter here. A "standard" set of library modules cannot, by definition, support whatever outside agreements might be in place between two organizations. Any module that purports to be generally useful should simply disallow ambiguity by never assuming that a format is an expanded (per the ISO definition) one.
Jerry -- Jerry Wilcox - Manager, Payroll/Personnel Services University of California, Office of the President Information Resources & Computing 415 20th Street (3rd Floor) Oakland, CA 94612-2901 -- 510-987-0516 -- FAX 510-763-5597 ``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
