Hello Scott,
10 Oct 97 19:45, Scott Dudley wrote to Gerry Danen:
 SD > Why does compliance mean 4-digit years?  If Maximus were to support 
 SD > 2-digit years properly ("01/14/00 = January 14, 2000"), how on earth 
 SD > could that not be compliance?
I speak only for myself but prefer 2 digit years (less typing) but seeing 00 
for the year will take a bit of getting used to.
 SD > Furthermore, suppose that Maximus does use four-digit years, but 
 SD > assume that it uses dashes instead of slashes to separate the 
 SD > components.  I suppose that this would make it "incompliant" too?
Doesn't the COUNTRY option in CONFIG.SYS specify which format to use?  Living 
in the USA I've never worried about it since the default is that's the 
efault
for DOS.
 SD > As long as date handling is internally consistent and an intuitive 
 SD > way to do things, who cares what the rest of the industry does?
We should at least listen to "the rest of the industry" because they may have 
a better way.
 SD > I agree that "01/03/103" is awkward and unintuitive, but I fail to 
 SD > see why we *must* replace it with four-digit years in cases when a 
 SD > properly-interpreted two-digit year is unambiguous and works just as 
 SD > well.
There is a software package I work with that is keeps all it's dates as 4 
digit dates but has a configuration option called "pivot point."  It's a 4 
digit year (yyyy format).
          if you enter a date (mm/dd/yy format) where the yy portion of
          the entred date is >= the yy portion of the pivot point the
          century for the pivot point is used
          otherwise the century of (cc + 1) is used
The pivot point only controls how dates are entered and displayed -- not the 
internal value of dates already entered.
Example   Pivot     Date Entered      Date Maximus
          Point     or Displayed     Uses Internally
          =====     ============     ===============
          1920        01/01/80         01/01/1980
          1920        01/01/01         01/01/2001
The only exception to this would be when a caller was entering their dob.  
It's a little hard to be born in the future  a dob of 01/01/17 with a 
pivot point of 1920 would be 01/01/1917.
 SD > Obviously, for birthdates, a four-digit year is the way to go.  On 
 SD > the other hand, do you think there is really any point in cluttering 
 SD > up the file area listings or the current date display with 
 SD > four-digit dates?
I think most people will be comfortable with 2 digits for year in displayed 
dates (including dob).
Steve
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