This is a misconception. ISO8601 has six versions, is 14 pages long, and defines...

geenew · on Nov 19, 2022

Thanks! Wasn't aware of that spec.

db48x · on Nov 19, 2022

But they‘re mostly trivial variations of each other, or durations that nobody uses at all.

tim-- · on Nov 19, 2022

That's the problem though. If you don't support the durations that nobody uses, then you can't fully support ISO8601 dates.

Every trivial variation is another if/switch statement.

db48x · on Nov 20, 2022

Durations are not used in places that need a timestamp, and visa versa. More applications need timestamps than need durations.