[Bug 11069] document.lastModified could use strict ISO 8601

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=11069

Karl Dubost <karl+w3c@la-grange.net> changed:

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--- Comment #1 from Karl Dubost <karl+w3c@la-grange.net> 2010-10-16 13:22:19 UTC ---
the Editor, Ian Hickson, seems (seemed) not to be against that proposal for a
format which respects W3C Date and Time format.
http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-datetime

The issue is about implementations as I reported on my blog:
http://www.la-grange.net/2010/10/14/dom-lastModified
and in a Webkit bug report:
https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4363#c7

Cut and Paste here:

==========================================================
There is a subtle difference between Firefox and IE. I have tested yesterday
with different browsers the dates returned when HTTP Last-Modified is not
returned by the server.

HTML5 specification says 
http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/dom.html#dom-document-lastmodified

"The Document 's source file's last modification date and time must be derived
from relevant features of the networking protocols used, e.g. from the value of
the HTTP Last-Modified header of the document, or from metadata in the file
system for local files."

For a page where the HTTP header is 
Last-Modified: Wed, 13 Oct 2010 17:11:52 GMT

Opera 10.63  - Wed, 13 Oct 2010 17:11:52 GMT
Safari 5.0.2 - Wed, 13 Oct 2010 17:11:52 GMT
chrome v6.0.472.63 - Wed, 13 Oct 2010 17:11:52 GMT
Firefox 4.0b6 - 10/13/2010 13:11:52
IE8 - 10/13/2010 13:11:52

Conclusion IE8, Firefox are aligned with the specification.

When Last-Modified is not defined, HTML5 says:

"If the last modification date and time are not known, the attribute must
return the current date and time in the above format."

The results are:

Opera 10.63 - January 1, 1970 GMT
Safari 5.0.2 - Nil
chrome v6.0.472.63 - Nil
Firefox 4.0b6 - 10/13/2010 14:36:31 (date of the cache)
IE8 - 10/13/2010 14:53:22 (date of now)

Only IE8 is aligned with the specification.

Note that the HTML5 Specification editor welcomes modifications to the
specification if implementers decide to align on one format. One of the issues
is the proposed format in the specification is a US one, aka "MM/DD/YYYY
HH:MM:SS" See http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2007Jun/1005
==========================================================

# Time zone issue

Note that in addition of W3C Date and Time formats, there is the issue of the
time zone. so far Opera and WebKit give the time zone of the resource *on the
server*, but Firefox and IE give the date in the time zone of the user agent,
which I guess is the time zone of the Operating System on which the user agent
is working. The issue with the latter is that there is no way to have the exact
lastModified date of the resource and could be an issue when comparing between
two persons at different location discussing together.

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Received on Saturday, 16 October 2010 13:22:22 UTC