I believe the answer may lie within VMS::Misc.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Forrest Cahoon [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: 30 March 2001 06:03
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: dealing with VMS format dates
>
>
> Hello, everyone.
>
> I have what _should_ be a very simple task for VMS perl, but I'm not
> sure how to go about it.
>
> What I need to do is take a time written as a VMS-standard format
> string (e.g. 29-MAR-2001 22:42:18.31) and compare it with a file
> creation date, to see whether the file was created within, say, the 10
> seconds prior to the date represented.
>
> I know I can get the file creation date with stat, but handling the
> VMS format date string elegantly is another question.
>
> I'm thinking that the right way to do this is to write some kind of XS
> hooks into the VMS system library date functions (e.g. SYS$ASCTIM) but
> then you get Smithsonian time, not epoch seconds. There must be an
> easy way to convert between the two.
>
> I'd be happy to write a VMS::Date module to deal with this, but my
> mind is still stumbling on what the internal representation inside a
> VMS::Date object should be. Smithsonian time? That preserves
> accuracy, but can a quadword be stored in a perl scalar? And what
> about the time zone information? VMS times are local, epoch seconds
> are UTC ...
>
> If someone can suggest to me a good structure, I'm sure I can probably
> hack out the required system service calls with little difficulty.
>
> Suggestions?
>
> | Forrest Cahoon | [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> |------------------------------|
> | 850 21st Ave SE |----------------------| Only
> unbalanced people |
> | Mpls MN 55414-2514 | | can tip
> the scales... |
>
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