Re: Year 2000

John,

In a message dated 97-06-08 12:23:47 EDT, you write:

<<BIG snip>>
> Why does BPCS allow 00/00/00 as a beginning effectivity date?  Why is that
>  valid?  Having programmed in manufacturing for nearly 20 years I know that
>  it was a conscious design decision.  When a user enters a Effectivity date
>  you could have made it effective as of TODAY.  
>  
>  Because we programmers use 00/00/00 or 99/99/99 or 12/31/99 or any other
>  "SPECIAL VALUE" its our problem not date/time types.

No offense taken or intended, but, I was really just looking for the pro's
and con's of the issue.  As our "primary" application is a vendor-supplied
product, we don't modify the database unless absolutely necessary (and then
only with new logicals or an "extension" file).  With the exception of a very
few programs that are still native, all display and printer file DDS for BPCS
is generated by the AS/Set CASE tool.  The tool doesn't support native date
types, although it emulates a few of its own (written before they were even
available).  We also follow the vendor's standards for clarity.

As a result of sticking to the vendor's standards and products, we really
just haven't researched the date data types.  I wasn't aware that "Special
Values" were allowed, and took Al's statement as an absolute rather than a
consideration -- my mistake.  I DO think that we've now culled a fairly
comprehensive dialog on the subject, which was my original intent.  I also
wanted to know if the anecdotal evidence on performance that came out upon
the original release of these data types was still true, and it does not seem
to be.  Good dialog!  What can we pick on next?

Regards!

Dean Asmussen
Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
E-Mail:  DAsmussen@AOL.COM

"I think of life as a good book.  The more you get into it, the more it
begins to make sense." -- Harold S. Kushner
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