>>>Data and Business objects should be used to make applications for the same reason that one does not design an electrical appliance that is to be soldered into the wiring of the wall. I don't have to study the internals of a wall socket or the common plug to use them.
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>>It's amusing you would use this analogy with someone from the UK. Until recently, in the UK, most electrical devices you bought would not have a plug on the end. You would have to buy and attach it separately!
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>Al
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>Depends what you mean by recent - all appliances since the late 1980's have been sold in the UK with plugs and they have to be earthed - doesn't time go quickly when you're having fun
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>Talking of anomalies - when is the US going to come into line with the rest of the world on dates and weights - we love you dearly but the amount of time I spend changing our UK app to fit in with these anomalies!!!!!

Last time I was over there was '91, I stayed with an uncle. I remember us going to Tesco and he bought a small appliance like a blender and was not at all surprised he had to go into his workshop when he got home to wire on a plug. Maybe the wiring in his home was old or non-standard, but I remarked on it and got the impression from him it was pretty standard that you wired on your own plugs or got an electrician to do it for you. Even if the switch was in the late 80's that's still a lot later than anyone from North America would expect, or guess - that's why I thought it was funny Mike would use that analogy with you ;)

Here in Canada we've been (mostly) on the metric system for a long time. In engineering school from '77 to '81 we solved problems that were sometimes given in metric, and sometimes in imperial units. The metric ones were straightforward; for imperial the standard approach was to convert the inputs to metric, do the calculations in metric, and convert the results back to imperial. The idea of American engineers doing their job wholly in Imperial units makes my head hurt ;)

The US joins Myanmar and Liberia as the sole countries not predominantly metric.

For dates I wish everyone would use YYYYMMDD or YYMMDD for short (Japanese?)