Quite unrelated to the main topic, but shouldn't it be Croydon, London? I have never heard anyone called it London Croydon before. Generally addresses/places go from most specific to least and given Croydon is an area of London it should go first.
Addresses are one thing, but the inverse has its own logic. In terms of (mental) planning you want to know that you need to go to the UK then London then Croydon, otherwise there's an element of "where's that?" as you read left to right.
Yes, I noticed that too -- why "London Croydon" rather than "Croydon, London" ?
Date in Europe: 30/03/2026
Date in China: 2026/03/30
Then you have Little Endian and you have Big Endian.
TL;DR: Some humans like to talk about the specific and then the general and others vice versa.
But here is really why I think the author referred to it as "London, Croydon"
"London, Croydon" communicates "Hey we had this C++ standards meeting in London, one of the coolest cities in the world. (Be jealous!). We were helping add more complexity to the most complex language in the world in the lovely environment of London, England. Croydon is a piece of irrelevant detail... meeting was in London, remember that !
"Croydon, London" communicates "Hey we had this C++ standards meeting in gritty Croydon... it was in London so I guess it was OK ?? Sorry our budgets could not put us up in Westminister, London"
Generously - specifying Croydon does help travellers figure out where they need to be more specifically than just London. I'd like to hope if they met in New York City it'd say e.g. "New York - Riverdale" or something rather than leaving you to guess where in the city exactly.
Most things "in" London aren't in the centre unless they're tourist destinations or they're extremely old. The most surprising thing I ran into right in the centre was the International Maritime Organisation's headquarters, which is right on the Thames because historically that makes sense in a way that arguably it already didn't when that was built, and certainly not today.
