Parsing ISO date/time strings - where did the parser go?

[Roy Smith]

In article <mailman.473.1347317852.27098.python-list at python.org>,
 Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 7:46 AM, Rhodri James
> <rhodri at wildebst.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> > On Sun, 09 Sep 2012 13:14:30 +0100, Roy Smith <roy at panix.com> wrote:
> >
> >> In article <mailman.323.1346961101.27098.python-list at python.org>,
> >>  Thomas Jollans <t at jollybox.de> wrote:
> >>
> >>> The ISO date/time format is dead simple and well-defined.
> >
> >
> >> Well defined, perhaps.  But nobody who has read the standard could call
> >> it "dead simple".  ISO-8601-2004(E) is 40 pages long.
> >
> >
> > A short standard, then :-)
> 
> What is it that takes up forty pages? RFC 2822 describes a date/time
> stamp in about two pages. In fact, the whole RFC describes the
> Internet Message Format in not much more than 40 pages. Is
> ISO-language just bloated?
> 
> *boggle*

You can find a copy at http://dotat.at/tmp/ISO_8601-2004_E.pdf