On Mon, Feb 05, 2018 at 02:07:47PM +0100, Vincent Lefevre wrote: > On 2018-02-04 08:22:23 -0500, Michael Stone wrote: > > On Mon, Feb 05, 2018 at 12:48:45AM +1300, Richard Hector wrote: > > > In which case, it should refuse to accept '4/2/2018' at all, right? > > > > It can't, that would break working scripts. This is the heart of the > > problem: we know the parser is horrible, confusing, and irregular, but any > > attempt to change it will break lots of stuff that depends on the current > > brokenness. > > It is not rare that the behavior of utilities change and break > scripts. So, why not here, in particular for a good reason? > It is equally common, perhaps even more so, that buggy behavior is retained (especially if it is not harmful) and that "correct" behavior require a switch or setting. I am not personally affected by this, as far as I know, but as a software developer I can certainly understand wanting to retain backward compatibility, even when it is buggy.
Regards, -Roberto -- Roberto C. Sánchez
