RE: L-date fields

[Scott Johnson <sjohnson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bob,

I have to ask the question that if we are not going to ask/demand 4 digit
years from the user how are we going to know for sure what century they
are talking about???   Programs cannot read minds.....

Sure the programmer can do some fancy  programming to default it to 
some century when the year is less than some year, and some other 
century when greater than some year. BUT then that code would have 
to be 'fixed' in a few years.  We have some of this wonderful code in some
of our programs now.  And I personally don't like it. It is a band-aid.

Also, the programmer code write some code that defaults to the current
century when on a 2 digit year is entered by the user.  Which I would
guess is happening in that program you saw..  But I feel this would open 
the database up to A LOT of key errors and bad data.  The user would
get into the habit of always just typing 2 digit years.  A customer will
come along who is born on 09/02/1898.  The user in all their habits
enters 090298.  Does not recheck the field when it gets resolved to
09/02/1998.  And the customer becomes not born yet in the database.

--  Just my Two Cents Worth
------------------------------------------------------
Scott P. Johnson                sjohnson@highsmith.com
Programmer/Analyst
Highsmith Inc.
W5527 Hwy 106, PO BOX 800
Fort Atkinson, WI 53538-0800
TEL:  920-563-9571              FAX:  920-563-7395
------------------------------------------------------
----------
From:   Bob Cozzi[SMTP:BobCozzi@ibm.net]
Sent:   Thursday, September 11, 1997 5:38 PM
To:     'MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com'
Subject:        RE: L-date fields

I agree with Jon on this.
But what I've seen is that "entry programs" tend to allow the user to input 
only the 2-digit year, and then instantly convert it to a 4-digit year when 
the cursor leaves the input field.  This seems to be _the way_ users are 
going to expect this to work. I hope the DDS guys are providing something 
like this!!!!!!!
Of course the end-user can always enter the full 4-digit year if they want, 
but the user only has to enter something like this
091197
and the program translates it on the screen, instantly to
09/11/1997
I saw this today in action. It's pretty nice.
Bob Cozzi
Bob@RPGIV.COM
www.rpgiv.com
AS/400 Books:  http://www.rpgiv.com/as400Books.html

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