User:Gdr/Date proposal

Philosophy
Plain text within the Wiki markup. Support lots of different formats.

Plain dates
Dates with no calendar are in the Gregorian calendar if 1584-10-15 or later and in the Julian calendar if 1584-10-04 or earlier. (Dates in between are errors.)
 * Date: 15 November 2003
 * Date: 15 Nov 2003
 * Date: 1st January 1543
 * Date: October 4, 1212
 * Date: 2004-07-15
 * Date: May 1066
 * Date: 2004

Dates with calendar
Put the calendar in parentheses following the date.
 * Date: 16 January 1672 (Old Style)
 * Date: June 30, 1776 (New Style)
 * Date: 1912-05-12 (Julian)
 * Date: 1666-04-02 (Gregorian)

Dates always assume the 1 January beginning of the year.

Non-Western calendars could be supported.
 * Date: 7 Tishri 5772 (Hebrew)
 * Date: 7 Muharram 1425 (AH)

Ranges of dates
Separate the dates at the start and end of the range with a slash. The range is inclusive of both endpoints. If only one of the dates has a calendar, the calendar is assumed for the other.
 * Date: 1584-10-04 (Julian) / 1584-10-15 (Gregorian)
 * Date: 12 May 2003 / 12 June 2003
 * Date: May 2004 / Jun 2004
 * Date: 1941/1945

Imprecise dates
Put "c." or "circa" before a date to make it approximate.
 * Date: c. 1065 / 1088
 * Date: c. 2100 BC / c. 2050 BC