Menu bar clock does not respect custom date format

mrhooks wrote:

That is not entirely true. The menu bar clock will change its formatting according to the region selected in Language & Region.

That's a given.

However, customizations to the region's date and time formatting (under Advanced...) have no effect. It may not be a coding bug, but it's a silly oversight to have a global setting with the ability to be customized, but its customizations aren't also global. Even if it was coded as intended, IMHO it's still an error of omission.

You're welcome to let Apple know.

Feedback - macOS - Apple

Day-O is a menu clock and calendar.  Very nice, and you can customize the information displayed in the menu bar any way you desire

<http://shauninman.com/archive/2011/10/20/day_o_mac_menu_bar_clock>

I don't see any change in Catalina. Can you explain what you would like to change about it? There isn't much room there, so that's probably why it is limited.

I tried to hack it up using the command line. I was able to make changes, but there seems to be some sanity checks as to what is allowed there. If you tell me what you would like it to say, I can see if if it is possible to force it.

etresoft wrote:

I tried to hack it up using the command line.

If you could somehow find a way to fix Mojave/Catalina unwillingness to obey the locale command like it used to, that would be most welcome! See

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/338638/mojave-and-its-non-respect-of-the-applelocale-preference

Locale and language are not the same. I wouldn't say this was something to be "fixed". I can see in older VMs that the Advanced tab under General had a Format language that was independent of system language. It was there in 10.10 but is gone as of 10.14. I don't have any VMs in between on this machine. That's an interesting setting. I can display just the menubar clock in Inukitut. But this is clearly something that was removed on purpose. It was probably jus something that iOS didn't support, so in the bitbucket it goes. In 10.15, I can't re-create 10.10's ability to show only the menubar clock in Inuktitut. Even if I switch the entirely language, the menubar clock is always in English.

I was able to simulate it by forcing specific system apps (like Dock and SystemUIServer) to run in specific languages.

Tom Gewecke wrote:

You can get your menu bar clock in inuktitut via the terminal locale command through 10.13. Apple broke it in 10.14 and 10.15 (so far).

It was explicitly supported with a dialog in 10.11 and earlier. However, you can't say that Apple "broke it". They did remove this feature in 10.12. But defaults are private app settings. They are not a legitimate way to stuff behaviour into an app.

Can you describe how you would like to customize the format? Can you give us an example? What would "Mon Feb 17 9:56" look like in your hypothetical format?

The system is designed to only run in one language at a time. You can avoid restarting, but you will start to notice odd things. Some dialogs will be in a different language, and some won't. When you restart, all apps will run in the specified language, if they can. The same is possible for locale settings, but probably less noticeable.

You asked for: Mon 17 Feb 9:56

Day-O: EEE d MMM h:mm

You asked for: Feb 17 Mon 9:56

Day-O: MMM d EEE h:mm

The date formatting rules comes from

https://shauninman.com/day-o/datetime.html

mrhooks wrote:

I just want to change the order of the elements. For example, "Mon 17 Feb 9:56" or "Feb 17 Mon 9:56".

Sorry. It can’t be done. Apple has hard-coded what it expects for these values. When I try to change it, it just resets them to what it wants.

I just made my own clock.

The only settings you can change for the menu bar clock are those in System Preferences > Date & Time > Clock. Catalina is the same. It doesn't need "fixed". It's how it's coded.