From: CRDGW2::CRDGW2::MRGATE::"SMTP::CRVAX.SRI.COM::RELAY-INFO-VAX" 2-SEP-1989 09:52 To: MRGATE::"ARISIA::EVERHART" Subj: Re: Changes I didn't want Received: From KL.SRI.COM by CRVAX.SRI.COM with TCP; Fri, 1 SEP 89 17:47:32 PDT Received: from ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU by KL.SRI.COM with TCP; Fri, 1 Sep 89 17:44:55 PDT Received: by ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (5.61/1.37) id AA06885; Fri, 1 Sep 89 17:36:44 -0700 Received: from USENET by ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU with netnews for info-vax@kl.sri.com (info-vax@kl.sri.com) (contact usenet@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU if you have questions) Date: 2 Sep 89 00:02:54 GMT From: uhccux!munnari.oz.au!comp.vuw.ac.nz!windy!gpwd!gpwrmdh@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Martin D. Hunt) Organization: Government Printing Office, Wellington, New Zealand Subject: Re: Changes I didn't want Message-Id: <268@gp.govt.nz> References: <236@enea.se> Sender: info-vax-request@kl.sri.com To: info-vax@kl.sri.com In article <236@enea.se>, sommar@enea.se (Erland Sommarskog) writes: > Jerry comment my compliants on the change of the date display in DIRECTORY: >>The VMS routines that convert dates to printable format have been completely >>re-worked and generalized. The default format now includes the decimal time, >>but you can change that. Take a look at the LIB$DT_FORMAT logical for a quick >>peek. All the details are in the documentation somewhere - probably in the >>RTL manual. You can now, if you wish, make your dates come out in Swedish! > > I did take a glance in the manual, and played around a little with > the names. One problem is that one has fiddle around with the startup- > file to tailor everything. And for most stuff you need CMKRNL, SYSNAM > and SYSPRV. > As a ordinary user you can change LIB$DT_FORMAT to point at a couple > of predefined formats, LIB$DATE_FORMAT_nnn and LIB$_TIME_FORMAT_mmm > where 001 <= nnn <= 040 and 001 <= mmm <= 021. So I redefined LIB$DT_FORMAT > to some other than 001 that is the default, did DIRECTORY/DATE and - > no change at all. I also tried SHOW TIME and f$time(), but same there. > Now, I didn't have the time to read the manual carefully, or play > with it all day. But it seems like all utilities doesn't the > date-formatting routines. > > By the way, another logical is SYS$LANGUAGE. There are a couple of > supported languages, in practice the major Western European languages. > The first one they listed was new to, though: Austrian. > -- > Erland Sommarskog - ENEA Data, Stockholm - sommar@enea.se > The law of gravity should be forbidden execpt in downhills. -- The relevent section is section 3.3 of the LIB$ routine manual. Before starting, the routine SYS$MANAGER:LIB$DT_STARTUP.COM should be run to define the "pre-defined" logicals - this is not done by system startup by default. I have just played around with the logicals for an hour, and came up with the following: 1. To get the same display as under V4, use $ ASSIGN LIB$DATE_FORMAT_001, LIB$TIME_FORMAT_008 LIB$DT_FORMAT 2. I experimented with defining my own date and time format and came up with: $ ASSIGN/EXEC/TABLE=LNM$DT_FORMAT_TABLE "!WC!DB !MAC !Y2" - LIB$DATE_FORMAT_501 $ ASSIGN/EXEC/TABLE=LNM$DT_FORMAT_TABLE "!HB2:!MO !MIL" - LIB$TIME_FORMAT_501 $ ASSIGN LIB$DATE_FORMAT_501, LIB$DATE_FORMAT_501 LIB$DT_FORMAT The tab character is to get things lined up properly. It displays the date in words, including the weekday, and the time with a.m. or p.m. 3. To get different languages, ASSIGN ENGLISH,FRENCH SYS$LANGUAGES before running the command procedure. Then ASSIGN FRENCH SYS$LANGUAGE if you want the directory listing in French or ASSIGN ENGLISH SYS$LANGUAGE for English. There should also be a way of letting users define their own formats without having to put it in a system wide table, but I haven't tried this. It does not affect the display from such things as SHOW TIME. Isn't amazing where DEC hides some of its useful documentation. I spent about half an hour finding it, before I could even start playing with it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Martin D. Hunt Government Printing Office Wellington New Zealand USEnet address : MARTINH@GP.GOVT.NZ PSI address : PSI%0530147000028::MARTINH --------------------------------------------------------------------------------