HP OpenVMS Systems

Two-digit years and $bintim service? 1957? Y2K?

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The Question is:

 
The $BINTIM and $BINUTC system services on Alpha will
accept a date string with only 2 digits in the year field
(contrary to the documentation).
The base year for deciding which century to use appears
to be 1957 (i.e. xx-xxx-56 => 2056, xx-xxx-57 => 1957).
 
1. Is this documented anywhere?
 
2. Is there any way to control the base year?
 
3. Is there any way to disable this to require a 4 digit
   year field?
 
 
 

The Answer is :

 
  The acceptance of two-digit years is documented.
 
  The Wizard believes this feature to be somewhat unfortunate, as it
  encourages some programmers to make the mistake of using 2-digit years.
 
  There is no supported way to disable this behaviour.
 
  There is no supported way to change the transition year value of 57
  (EXE$GL_TRANSITION_YEAR).
 

  

     

     
answer written or last revised on ( 5-AUG-1998 )
     
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