DH> Is the 32-bit command interpreter specific to OS/2 v4.0? I tried the
 DH> DATE /N command with OS/2 v3.0 (FP 40 and 32-bit CMD.EXE file) and
 DH> received an error message:
 DH>
 DH> SYS1036: The system cannot accept the date entered.

If you crank up IBM's 16-bit CMD, and run the TIME command with the /? option, 
you will notice that it documents a /N option.  The idea of this /N option is
obviously to overcome a long-standing problem with both the DATE and TIME
commands, namely that one cannot use them to just *display* the current date
and time, without altering it, since they, in the absence of arguments giving
a new date or time, prompt interactively for a new date or time.  

But documenting it in the help message is as far as IBM's 16-bit CMD goes.  It 
doesn't actually *implement* it, in either the DATE or the TIME commands, as
you have discovered.  

With the new 32-bit CMD, since the DATE and TIME commands were being enhanced
*anyway* to support timezones, respect the TZ environment variable, and to
have the ability to comply with the ISO 8601 standard, it wasn't much trouble
to actually implement the /N option as well:

        [C:\]date /n
        Current date is: Wed 1999-09-22 21:40:38 +0100
        [C:\]date /n /l
        Current date is: Wed 22-09-1999 09:40:41 pm BST
        [C:\]date
        Current date is: Wed 1999-09-22 21:40:46 +0100
        Enter a new date:
        [C:\]date /l
        Current date is: Wed 22-09-1999 09:40:48 pm BST
        Enter a new date:
        [C:\]date /?
        DATE   Display or set the current date
        Copyright (c) 1999 Jonathan de Boyne Pollard.  All Rights Reserved.

        Usage: DATE [/?] [/N] [/L] [/Fformat] [date]

               /N  Do not prompt for a new date
               /L  Display the date in the current country's local format.
                   By default, the date will be displayed in ISO 8601 
        standard form.
        [C:\]

 ¯ JdeBP ®

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