> Unix time is the real universal date format surely?
Heh… It can't represent UTC (leap seconds). Implementation weirdness like not being able to represent dates outside the 32-bit second counter range due to using a 32-bit second counter. The occasional need to store the TZ the timestamp is relevant in/to.
> It underpins basically everything in datetime database entries.
It does do that.
> The problem is that most people can't read that
This is why I prefer RFC 3339 or ISO, in that order.
> along with the French somehow never being able to convince the world to adopt decimal time.
As much as it is maligned, base 60 is rather convenient. It's easy to take 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5 and 1/6th of that number. Base 12 has this property too (though lacks the easy 1/5th).
Why make a good point and follow it with a bad joke which: both has a class of victim and does not work as a joke?
Nobody has ever heard of "the French" undertaking such a project. And if it had ever happened, it would most surely have been a particular Academy or the like. Not the 65M people under your careless swipe.
I'm actually one of those weird folks who likes decimal time and maybe one day we'll get there given that every other metric system was adopted by engineers worldwide except for time.
Wasn't meant as some slight against the French, completely the opposite hey, honestly think they had the right idea, the rest of the world got it wrong...and... that's very much a minority opinion these days. Some things are just ingrained into everyone I guess.
The problem is that most people can't read that along with the French somehow never being able to convince the world to adopt decimal time.