Roland,
>>> [log in to unmask] 31/03/03 21:30:52 >>>
> > Therefore, does anyone have suggestions/experience in encoding old dates?
> Have you tried xml-schema-part2 date and time datatypes?
Ah hah! You can tell I haven't delved deep enough into XML Schemas yet...
XSD certainly does offer negative years plus unlimited digits in the year, however it appears I need to select the particular datatype depending on the granularity of each date (unlike ISO8601/W3CDTF where one size fits all), ie.
http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-datatypes#date for -0800-01-01
http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-datatypes#gYearMonth for -0800-01
http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-datatypes#gYear for -0800
It also means I might have multiple encoding schemes for dates in my data, eg for a modern painting of old stuff:
<rdf:Description>
<dcq:created>
<dcq:W3CDTF>
<rdf:value>1950</rdf:value>
</dcq:W3CDTF>
</dcq:created>
<dcq:temporal>
<xsd:gYear>
<rdf:value>-0200</rdf:value>
</xsd:gYear>
</dcq:temporal>
</rdf:Description>
The nicest way (for me) would be if W3CDTF happened to cater for the ISO 8601:2000 extensions...
Thanx,
Douglas
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