From:	CRDGW2::CRDGW2::MRGATE::"SMTP::CRVAX.SRI.COM::RELAY-INFO-VAX"  2-SEP-1989 09:52
To:	MRGATE::"ARISIA::EVERHART"
Subj:	Re: Changes I didn't want

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Date: 2 Sep 89 00:02:54 GMT
From: uhccux!munnari.oz.au!comp.vuw.ac.nz!windy!gpwd!gpwrmdh@ames.arc.nasa.gov  (Martin D. Hunt)
Organization: Government Printing Office, Wellington, New Zealand
Subject: Re: Changes I didn't want
Message-Id: <268@gp.govt.nz>
References: <236@enea.se>
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In article <236@enea.se>, sommar@enea.se (Erland Sommarskog) writes:
> Jerry comment my compliants on the change of the date display in DIRECTORY:
>>The VMS routines that convert dates to printable format have been completely
>>re-worked and generalized.  The default format now includes the decimal time,
>>but you can change that.  Take a look at the LIB$DT_FORMAT logical for a quick
>>peek.  All the details are in the documentation somewhere - probably in the
>>RTL manual.  You can now, if you wish, make your dates come out in Swedish!
> 
> I did take a glance in the manual, and played around a little with
> the names. One problem is that one has fiddle around with the startup-
> file to tailor everything. And for most stuff you need CMKRNL, SYSNAM 
> and SYSPRV.
>   As a ordinary user you can change LIB$DT_FORMAT to point at a couple
> of predefined formats, LIB$DATE_FORMAT_nnn and LIB$_TIME_FORMAT_mmm
> where 001 <= nnn <= 040 and 001 <= mmm <= 021. So I redefined LIB$DT_FORMAT
> to some other than 001 that is the default, did DIRECTORY/DATE and -
> no change at all. I also tried SHOW TIME and f$time(), but same there.
>   Now, I didn't have the time to read the manual carefully, or play
> with it all day. But it seems like all utilities doesn't the
> date-formatting routines.
> 
> By the way, another logical is SYS$LANGUAGE. There are a couple of
> supported languages, in practice the major Western European languages.
> The first one they listed was new to, though: Austrian.
> -- 
> Erland Sommarskog - ENEA Data, Stockholm - sommar@enea.se
> The law of gravity should be forbidden execpt in downhills.
-- 

The relevent section is section 3.3 of the LIB$ routine manual. Before 
starting, the routine SYS$MANAGER:LIB$DT_STARTUP.COM should be run to 
define the "pre-defined" logicals - this is not done by system startup by 
default.

I have just played around with the logicals for an hour, and came up with 
the following:

1. To get the same display as under V4, use 
$ ASSIGN LIB$DATE_FORMAT_001, LIB$TIME_FORMAT_008 LIB$DT_FORMAT

2. I experimented with defining my own date and time format and came up 
with:
$ ASSIGN/EXEC/TABLE=LNM$DT_FORMAT_TABLE "!WC<tab>!DB !MAC !Y2" -
							LIB$DATE_FORMAT_501
$ ASSIGN/EXEC/TABLE=LNM$DT_FORMAT_TABLE "!HB2:!MO !MIL" -
							LIB$TIME_FORMAT_501
$ ASSIGN LIB$DATE_FORMAT_501, LIB$DATE_FORMAT_501 LIB$DT_FORMAT

The tab character is to get things lined up properly. It displays the date 
in words, including the weekday, and the time with a.m. or p.m.

3. To get different languages, ASSIGN ENGLISH,FRENCH SYS$LANGUAGES before 
running the command procedure. Then ASSIGN FRENCH SYS$LANGUAGE if you want 
the directory listing in French or ASSIGN ENGLISH SYS$LANGUAGE for English.

There should also be a way of letting users define their own formats 
without having to put it in a system wide table, but I haven't tried this.

It does not affect the display from such things as SHOW TIME.

Isn't amazing where DEC hides some of its useful documentation. I spent 
about half an hour finding it, before I could even start playing with it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Martin D. Hunt
Government Printing Office
Wellington
New Zealand

USEnet address : MARTINH@GP.GOVT.NZ
PSI address    : PSI%0530147000028::MARTINH
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

