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)