On Windows XP in the control panel set your country to
"New Zealand".

This gives a short date format of 'dd-mm-yy'

Now in python:
>>> from time import *
>>> print strftime('%c', localtime)
02/17/04 09:15:10
>>> print strftime('%x', localtime())
02/17/04

This is giving the date in the format 'mm-dd-yy'
(American).

Could it be to do with the 'locale.nl_langinfo' bieng
unavailable in xp?

Versions:
ActivePython 2.3.2 Build 232 (ActiveState Corp.) based
on Python 2.3.2 (#49, Nov 13 2003, 10:34:54) [MSC
v.1200 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Windows XP Home Edition (up to dateish)

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Sorry, code should be:

>>> from time import *
>>> print strftime('%c', localtime())
02/17/04 09:15:10
>>> print strftime('%x', localtime())
02/17/04

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This is a Windows C library bug and nothing to do with our end.  
Since time.strftime is just a wrapper around ISO C's strftime function we 
just pass in the arguments and then pass them back out without fiddling 
with anything.

So unless there is some compiler setting that needs to be set to be more 
locale-sensitive (doubt it, but since I don't have a Windows box I have no 
way of knowing; this is why I am unassigning this from myself) this is 
probably invalid and Microsoft's fault.

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Tim, what do you think?

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I think it's a feature that locale-dependent behavior defaults 
to "C" locale, and doesn't change unless you explicitly change 
the locale.

>>> import time, locale
>>> now = time.localtime()
>>> time.strftime("%c", now)
'03/14/04 01:14:52'
>>> locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, "german")
'German_Germany.1252'
>>> time.strftime("%c", now) # that changed what "%c" does
'14.03.04 01:14:52'
>>>

I also think C's locale gimmicks suck (e.g., there's no portable 
set of locale names across platforms), but that's all we've got 
for now.

IOW, this isn't a bug.