Quote:
> For the implementors reading the newsgroup, and perhaps
> Mr. Nelson:
> Are there any plans to change the format of the identifier
> 'date' in the statement "accept from date" from YYMMDD
> to CCYYMMDD? Or is the intrinsic function 'current-date'
> supposed to be the substitute? Thanks!!!
Yes there are plans. Obviously, we can't change the way the current
syntax now works or zillions of programs would no longer work. And
don't say "well, if the reciever is eight characters instead of six
you can provide the century". There would still be lots of programs
that had receivers larger than six characters and they would all fail.
We would be threatened with lawsuits and such (as we were last time
around). What we did for the proposed standard is extend the syntax.
You will be able to say "ACCEPT whatever FROM DATE YYYYMMDD" or
"ACCEPT whatever FROM DAY YYYYDDD". However, it is probably just as
easy (in my opinion it is easier) to use "MOVE FUNCTION CURRENT-DATE
(1: 8) TO whatever" in place of the ACCEPT ... DATE. Also, the
function gives you lots more flexibility. The ACCEPT ... DAY one is
more difficult to replace with functions since you must use the date
conversion functions.
--
Don Nelson
COBOL Development, Tandem Computers, Inc.
Member, ANSI X3J4 and ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22 WG4 COBOL Committees
No clever quotes here