Subj : date format ideas
To   : Vince Coen
From : Ken Bowley
Date : Wed Oct 05 2016 18:52:04

On 2016-10-05 09:56:28 -0700, Vince Coen wrote to Ken Bowley:

> Would have thought that the Linux standard date format of YYYYMMDD can be 
used
> for all. Then only convert for display subject to LC settings (sysop) or for
> language settings for bbs users (or there again just the LC one only).

You may be a little disappointed to learn that in the user record in MBSE
sDateOfBirth is stored as a string in DD-MM-YYYY format, although other dates
(tFirstLoginDate and tLastLoginDate) are stored a int32_t.

> Unix has a date and a date/time construct in C that has been in use a very 
> long
> time that can be used for the storage of such.

agreed.

> My applications when updating all use this form and only o/p to display or
> pronter based on users system settings via LC_TIME.

> Vince



>  >    Hello everybody!

>  > I was talking with a friend/co-worker about the date format issue with
>  > MBSE, and he asked if we could just use standard strftime formats.
>  > This seems like an idea that would reduce much of the complication
>  > involved with this change.

>  > The changes to records would be a small string (6 bytes?) for the
>  > default system format, and the same for user preferences.

>  > Display changes would be very simple, since they could just use
>  > strftime to format the date display.

>  > The GetDate function in mbsebbs/input.c would need to need to
>  > understand the strftime format (or a reduced/simplified subset that
>  > includes %Y, %m, and %d), and adjust the handling of user import
>  > accordingly.

>  > The language files currently have the date format hardcoded for the
>  > prompts to enter dates for "Date of Birth" and for entering a date
>  > when searching files. These will need to be more flexible.  Perhaps
>  > something similar to what is needed for GetDate will work for
>  > templating the date format in the language files.

>  > Along with these changes is having MBSE use a time_t rather than a
>  > string when possible so we can get rid of code (only two places that I
>  > can think of at the moment) that manipulates a date string into a
>  > YYYYMMDD format before turning it into an integer for comparison and
>  > sorting.

>  > Ken




> Vince

> --- Mageia Linux v5/Mbse v1.0.6/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.501-b20150715
>  + Origin: Air Applewood, The Linux Gateway to the UK & Eire (2:250/1)


--- Ken's Ruby JAM reader (jamlib 0.1.4)
 * Origin: The Realm of Darkness |(623)907-2858| bbs.trod.org (1:114/485)

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