Hello Jasen,

    On Saturday November 09 2002 at 12:21,
    Jasen Betts [3:640/531.42] wrote to Gerald Miller,
    about:  XBOOT3.BTM

 JB> here's a solution to the date format problem.

 JB> what I do is set up a variable containing the conversion expression
 JB> that converts between date formats  then just use that variable to
 JB> extract a converted form of the date when reading the file... theat
 JB> way the conversion only needs to be figured out once and can be reused
 JB> af often as needed.


 JB> text> %tempfile
 JB> PATH\PROGRAM TO RUN                ³AFTER³        ³        ³DAYS ³
 JB>                                    ³ DAYS³LAST RUN³NEXT RUN³ LEFT³ASK
 JB> endtext

I "shortened" the above display because of word wrap...

 JB> echo ÄÄÄÄ %{at}format[03.3,%country] %{at}repeat[Ä,32]Å%=
 JB> ÄÄÄÄÄÅ%df%Å%df%ÅÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄ >> %tempfile

 JB> set orig=%{at}instr[48,8,%{at}line[%bootfile,2]]

This is "looking good" - I've got to put it into practise and do
some testing.

Originally, I was making a comparison of the Country Code embedded on line
2 of the data file and the current Country Code of the system running the
batch file .AND. a comparison of your:

  set orig=%{at}instr[48,8,%{at}line[%bootfile,2]]

and doing a "hard" date format conversion if there was
inequality.  I must incorporate your code into the _NEXT_ test batch.... 
:))

 JB> iff %orig == %df then
 JB> set dateconversion=%%date
 JB> else
 JB> :: build a date conversion expression in a variable...
 JB> set dateconversion=%=
 JB> %%{at}instr[%{at}index[%orig,%{at}instr[0,2,%df]],2,%%date]%{at}instr[2,1,%df]%=
 JB> %%{at}instr[%{at}index[%orig,%{at}instr[3,2,%df]],2,%%date]%{at}instr[5,1,%df]%=
 JB> %%{at}instr[%{at}index[%orig,%{at}instr[6,2,%df]],2,%%date]
 JB> :: aren't interpreted languages fun!
 JB> echo.
 JB> echo Converting date format from %orig to %df using expression:
 JB> set dateconversion
 JB> echo.
 JB> endiff
 JB> unset orig df

I can't wait to see what happens here when I put in two LIES into the data
file....  I have a copy of that data file that I sent you where I had
changed the country code / date format.  I will swap that file with the
current data file.

 JB>   do n=3 to %{at}lines[%bootfile]
 JB>     set prog=%{at}instr[0,41,%{at}line[%bootfile,%n]]
 JB>     set when=%{at}instr[42,5,%{at}line[%bootfile,%n]]

 JB> :: convert last to local format
 JB>     set date=%{at}instr[48,8,%{at}line[%bootfile,%n]]
 JB>     set last=%dateconversion

 JB> :: next is never used but I'll convert it too :)
 JB>     set date=%{at}instr[57,8,%{at}line[%bootfile,%n]]
 JB>     set next=%dateconversion

Next was a variable name that I assigned when I had presumed that certain
information was being copied to the tempfile instead of being updated.  Now
that I know otherwise, I guess I can make some changes....  :))

 JB>     set left=%{at}instr[66,5,%{at}line[%bootfile,%n]]
 JB>     set ask=%{at}instr[72,1,%{at}line[%bootfile,%n]]

I'll have to get testing...  Thanks.

           Cheers ... Gerald

--- GoldED+/386 v1.1.5-21101