>>Probably, yes, there is a protocol, but it may differ for different systems.
>>FORMAT 'dd-mon-yyyy' is used for Oracle (for example, http://www.utexas.edu/its/unix/reference/oracledocs/v92/B10501_01/server.920/a96529/ch3.htm#49880), but probably it is not a good name for the function.
>
>Thanks

In addition,
DateFORMAT DDMonthYYYY hh:mm:ss !timezone? (22Jul1996 16:00 MET)
is mentioned in
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:8OU-KvfbF6oJ:archiv.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/1996/0020/doc.ps+%22ddMonthYYYY%22+protocol&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1