Paul Gilmartin wrote: > I would prefer that ZONE be an argument to STCKCONV so any > user anywhere could convert a timestamp, possibly recorded > elsewhere, to local time. Even better, ZONE should support > values indicating specific, not necessarily local, time zones.
Yes, that was an [obvious] omission. It was a great surprise to me, and a disappointment, when I first learned about STCKCONV. > .. such corrections would more usefully be performed > by STCKCONV, so archival timestamps could uniformly be > uncorrected TOD clock values. STCKCONV could, of course, be enhanced to do this, but it could just as well be a new service (or a new macro). But which macro or which service offered it is not important. But there is no reason why the TIME macro/service should not also be enhanced to return a LDTO- and LSO-corrected STCK[E] GMT/UTC TOD clock value. TIME already returns the local time, just not in an STCK[E] format. So I don't think it would be "more useful" to have this _just_ in STCKCONV. It would be "most useful" to have it in both, but if IBM were going to deliver it in just one, I would choose TIME, since I can handle the double or quadruple arithmetic myself just as easily as I can code new parameters on an (enhanced) STCKCONV macro invocation. In other words, most folks would benefit from it being added to the TIME macro and service. Nonetheless, your goal that "archival timestamps could uniformly be uncorrected TOD clock values" is both noble and desirable, but they could be that way now (and are in many products I know of). All one has to do is a little bit of extra work, or simply store the LDTO and LSO values ALSO. There's nothing that prevents this from being done now. If STCKCONV were enhanced, you'd have to write some new code anyway. If you're willing to write some new code when that day comes, just go ahead and write it now to handle the actual or implied LDTO and LSO values. Then when the new STCKCONV features you want become available, you can just remove some of that new code and let STCKCONV do it for you. -- WB ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
