mark lewis wrote in a message to Ramon van der Winkel:

 ml> try this one instead... this is how that same message
 ml> appeared when it arrived here after travelling thru 6
 ml> systems... at least one of them is using software that
 ml> cannot convert the time/date stamp correctly and also passes
 ml> converted stuff down the pipe instead of unaltered copies...

 ml> 03 Aug 96 20:48

After running this through FidoCorrectDate(), I get "03 Aug 96 
20:48:00". No problem for WaterGate!

 RvdW> This is what I do: I do the date checking and conversion when I
 RvdW> read the messag from a .PKT file. I store the corrected format and
 RvdW> this reduces the requirements on the rest of the code. If I happen
 RvdW> to write the message out again, then I use the corrected format.
 RvdW> This will be the same format in 99% of the cases and a corrected
 RvdW> format in the rest of the cases.

 ml> i still don't understand... "reduced requirements" ?? hunh?

WaterGate is a gateway towards the Internet as well. .PKT is just one of
the ways a message can arrive for processing. If I make sure that input
stream is clean, then my date conversion code won't stumble on invalid
formats and as a result maybe produce an invalid date format in another
network. Regard the Internet, that might mean the message gets trashed!

 ml> for local storage, do whatever... for passing on down the
 ml> line, simple reading and writting of unaltered bytes is all
 ml> that's needed other than the minor seen-by, path, and header
 ml> net/node changes... nothing else should be altered from the
 ml> original IF the mail mangler is going to pass the message on
 ml> down the line. 

We'll leave it for discussion by others.

 ml> if the above paragraph was in use everywhere, then the above
 ml> hex dump would not happen!!! think about that! convert
 ml> nothing, alter only what is necessary, pass on conforming
 ml> stuff and sideline/bounce non-conforming stuff... 

I can extra ", pass on conforming stuff". That's exactly what I
was trying to do, right?

Ramon

--- WtrGate+ 0.92.p3-d gamma sn 1