Make the date and time format a bit more consistent

Currently, Files uses date and time formats which make an effort to be human readable where possible. In the modified list column, we just show the time if the timestamp was for the current date. For yesterday we show "yesterday", and for days within a week we show the day of the week. We only show the year if the date wasn't in the current year.

This is similar to what you see in messaging apps and is particularly well suited to lists that are ordered by recency. However, it can also lead to issues, particularly when a list isn't ordered by recency:

• Inconsistent formatting can make the date harder to scan and can look a bit messy
• For dates within the last week, it can be hard to work out what date is being referred to
• If you are looking for a specific date it can sometimes be missing

I'd therefore like to propose that we modify the default time and date formats to increase consistency and specificity, while still retaining a degree of friendliness.

The exact format will need to be locale dependent.

Proposal

List columns

Today and yesterday show a human-readable date and the time:

Today, 12:00
Yesterday, 12:00

All other dates have the same format, with a short date and the year:

28 Jan 2023
27 Jan 2023
26 Jan 2023

Properties dialogs

Today and yesterday:

30 January 2023, 12:00:00
29 January 2023, 12:00:00

Other dates:

28 January 2023, 12:00:00
27 January 2023, 12:00:00
26 January 2023, 12:00:00

File conflict dialogs

Same as list columns, except the time is always shown.

Today and yesterday:

Today, 12:00:00
Yesterday, 12:00:00

Other dates:

28 Jan 2023, 12:00:00
27 Jan 2023, 12:00:00
26 Jan 2023, 12:00:00

Example

The following shows what I see in the date modified column for my Documents folder, in both the current and proposed format:

Current format   New format

        Wed        8 Mar 2023
        Wed        8 Mar 2023
      11:09      Today, 11:09
     23 Jan       23 Jan 2023
 6 Jan 2022        6 Jan 2023
10 Nov 2022       10 Nov 2022
 9 Feb 2022        9 Feb 2022
26 Apr 2022       26 Apr 2022
22 Nov 2022       22 Nov 2022
29 Sep 2022       29 Sep 2022
 9 Jan 2023        9 Jan 2023
      15:29      Today, 15:29