> No clarity at all. You can't just hand wave and say 8601! 8601!
No, but you can hand wave and say "as specified in the [HTML5] spec", with a link to the spec, and have the spec cover the details.
But really the answer is: ISO 8601 specifies standard formats for both datetimes (what you are referring to), and plain dates (YYYY-MM-DD). When an article says that a date is converted to ISO 8601 format, isn't it obvious that it means ISO 8601 date format, not ISO 8601 datetime format?
(Additionally, the spec doesn't say "8601 format", it specifies the format, and notes that it is "based on" 8601 format).
No, but you can hand wave and say "as specified in the [HTML5] spec", with a link to the spec, and have the spec cover the details.
But really the answer is: ISO 8601 specifies standard formats for both datetimes (what you are referring to), and plain dates (YYYY-MM-DD). When an article says that a date is converted to ISO 8601 format, isn't it obvious that it means ISO 8601 date format, not ISO 8601 datetime format?
(Additionally, the spec doesn't say "8601 format", it specifies the format, and notes that it is "based on" 8601 format).