Print FULL year in header line? Switched from 2017 to 17

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pstover
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Joined: July 29th, 2005, 3:25 am

Print FULL year in header line? Switched from 2017 to 17

Post by pstover »

I defined my header line for print as follows

Custom defintion right side:

&D Page &PT

In the past (I guess until Firefox v51 or v52) "&D" was replaced by the current date WITH THE FULL YEAR like

23.02.2017

Since Firefox v53 the years part shows only two digits like in

23.02.17

Why?

How can I switch back to 4-digit-year?

Is there an about-config setting for that (on 64bit Win 7)?

Peter
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Reflective
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Re: Print FULL year in header line? Switched from 2017 to 17

Post by Reflective »

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DanRaisch
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Re: Print FULL year in header line? Switched from 2017 to 17

Post by DanRaisch »

Where are you entering that value to control the date format?
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the-edmeister
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Re: Print FULL year in header line? Switched from 2017 to 17

Post by the-edmeister »

pstover wrote:I defined my header line for print as follows

Custom defintion right side:

&D Page &PT

In the past (I guess until Firefox v51 or v52) "&D" was replaced by the current date WITH THE FULL YEAR like

23.02.2017

Since Firefox v53 the years part shows only two digits like in

23.02.17

Why?

How can I switch back to 4-digit-year?

Is there an about-config setting for that (on 64bit Win 7)?

Peter
Yes, I can confirm that Firefox 53 did chage from 2017 (4-digit year) to 17 (2-digit year). I have no idea as to why, and I think you would have to modify that type of setting in the omni.ja file if that is where that setting is - I'm not sure. It's been like 8 or 10 tears since I have gone that deep into Firefox code to view to view the "print"code and the developer comments.

about:config has 6 prefs for the header / footer plus right / left / center -- such as this print.printer_your_printer_name_model_Printer.print_footercenter but the #D for date has no relationship to whether it prints 4-digits or 2-digits; that is set a lot deeper inside of Firefox. Those particular settings can be more easily be set / changed in File > Page Setup, rather than opening about:config. But IMO the problem is that Firefox has never had the "fine" settings that Internet Explorer had; the Firefox settings are "coarse" in comparison.

Overall that seems like a nonsensical thing to change, but hey the developers need to write or change code to "earn their keep".I also think that Mozilla pays a bounty for changing relatively inconsequential prefs / features that will piss off a small number of users or to have users ask "why the hell was that changed".
A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Mine has wandered off and I'm out looking for it.
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therube
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Re: Print FULL year in header line? Switched from 2017 to 17

Post by therube »

Do you display a 2 or 4 digit year in Windows?
Wonder if FF may (now) be following Windows (more generally, OS) settings... ?
Fire 750, bring back 250.
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Lnwdz
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Re: Print FULL year in header line? Switched from 2017 to 17

Post by Lnwdz »

It does look like they are trying to go back to using OS settings.
Comment 144 might have some clues - https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1301640
tsor
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Re: Print FULL year in header line? Switched from 2017 to 17

Post by tsor »

therube wrote:Do you display a 2 or 4 digit year in Windows?
Wonder if FF may (now) be following Windows (more generally, OS) settings... ?
If you change in the Control Panel --> Date and Time Settings --> click Change calendar settings moves you to the customize format select the Date Tab and expand at Date Format at the 'short date' and pick one of date displays with yyyy. Apply and ok to save/close the windows.

Thanks therube you were on the right track. If you change the OS settings it will change the print output on all printers you have installed.

*****
Edit: Since I'm using FF .. esr and have been daydreaming, the above post from ed-meister still applies: in FF 53 the 4 digit year was changed to 2 digits.
Sorry.
*****
Last edited by tsor on May 21st, 2017, 3:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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MarkRH
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Re: Print FULL year in header line? Switched from 2017 to 17

Post by MarkRH »

Hmmm.. interesting. I checked my control panel and the short date format was "M/d/yyyy" already and the last thing I printed had a date of 5/19/17, so it does not seem to obey the existing OS setting.
morat
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Re: Print FULL year in header line? Switched from 2017 to 17

Post by morat »

I would need to rebuild the application (i.e. hack the c++ code) to change the "&D" date time format.

http://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-release/ ... %26D+code"

I could change the custom footer text by creating a timer to set the print.printer_*.print_footerright pref every minute or so.

@MarkRH

It works the same for me.
tsor
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Re: Print FULL year in header line? Switched from 2017 to 17

Post by tsor »

I would like to suggest to temp. use FF 52.1.2 ESR [Extended Support Release] https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/o ... tions/all/ but I do not want to promote this.

This is not a general fix, but it would buy some time. Before downloading please read here: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/

Particularly the lines: Who is it not for?
pstover
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Joined: July 29th, 2005, 3:25 am

Re: Print FULL year in header line? Switched from 2017 to 17

Post by pstover »

tsor wrote:
therube wrote:Do you display a 2 or 4 digit year in Windows?
Wonder if FF may (now) be following Windows (more generally, OS) settings... ?
If you change in the Control Panel --> Date and Time Settings --> click Change calendar settings moves you to the customize format select the Date Tab and expand at Date Format at the 'short date' and pick one of date displays with yyyy. Apply and ok to save/close the windows.
No.
In Control Panel---> .... --> Customize Format there is already (and never have been changed a 4-digit-year!

So its definitively a Firefox change which must be introduced somehow in the last weeks/months.

I would appreciate the old 4-digits years.
At least as an option in "config-about".

When will it be reverted back to the good old format?

Do I have to open an official feature request for that?

Peter
tsor
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Re: Print FULL year in header line? Switched from 2017 to 17

Post by tsor »

the-edmeister wrote:

.... I also think that Mozilla pays a bounty for changing relatively inconsequential prefs / features that will piss off a small number of users or to have users ask "why the hell was that changed".
To answer 'the hell' part: Because the bug report https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1301640

Whatever the intend of that bug fix ... one of the results is 2 Digit Year regardless the OS Settings ... it works now this way. The bug report is marked: RESOLVED FIXED in Firefox 53

For permanent fix the options are:
Filing a new bug report with reference to the above mentioned id or ask for to change RESOLVED to OPEN.
or like Morat stated hacking the program.

Imho: Someone tried to fix a pothole in the road and unfortunately digging another one in the process. E.g.it was not considered that with the shorttime and longtime setting [containing ....tt] hh:mm tt the AM + PM symbol is being used by some people to have something else like a username displayed instead of AM,PM [in the taskbar and in the prints]. It is my understanding that using substitute data as replacement for original data is never a good idea, but it happened with this patch. I don't want to judge that approach, but I have the feeling in the process creating that substitute data file there was a misunderstanding what time and date is, where those values are set, influenced from, how this values displayed outside the English speaking world, and never considered that the time indicator AM/PM could be something else as AM/PM. Since I switched to Firefox .. ESR and disabled the automated update I lost the feeling being used as guinea pig.
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