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On Fri, 12 Sep 1997 12:21:44 -0500, Bob Cozzi <BobCozzi@ibm.net>
wrote:

>Scott,
>
>I don't know. If you're in the habit of typing 19xx instead of just the 
>year, I think you're just as likely to mistype 1998 instead of 1898 whether 
>or not the year defaults.  That is why the confirmation is immediately 
>displayed. When you exit the field (not the panel) the full date is 
>inserted. Thus allowing the user to type in either 1998 or 98.

If this sort of code were universal, I'd agree. However, I still don't
want users becoming comfortable with a particular century.

>And the underlying code would never need to be changed. The default century 
>should always be the current century or the next century, unless you're 
>dealing with birthdays, then it should always be the current century or the 
>prior century.

OK, so which one? I'm not a fan of windowing, either fixed or sliding,
because there's too many ways to make the wrong assumptions. 

>I am not a fan of code that "makes the user" do things so that the 
>programming job is easier. I believe in inviting correctness, but being 
>flexible enough to allow the user to EASILY stray from the normal process. 
>Heck, we are the servants. We work for the end-user. They should not work 
>for us.

I totally agree. I've found that 80% of my application development
time is devoted to the UI, whether on the AS/400 or dBase or whatever.
Presentation is of prime importance. However, to make assumptions on a
date in a system that will arguably be in use for decades... That's
why we're in this mess now.

>Another method of decided whether or not to force 4-digit years vs 2-digit 
>years or allowing both is to use the 80/20 rule.  If the end user has to do 
>extra work for EVERY transaction just because they may occasionally need to 
>type in 1898 instead of 1998, are they going to like the software more?

I like all these ideas, Bob. I'd normally agree. 

The next 10 or so years are when we want the user to be cognizant of
dates. You say that the user won't like the software more b/c they
have to type 2 extra characters, my rebuttal is that won't they waste
as much, if not more time, VERIFYING that the centruy 'defaults' are
correct in the first place???

The 20th century is the first in which we have electronic storage of
information. As we move into the next millenium and beyond, someone's
gotta keep track of WHEN stuff in the past happened. (and the future,
for that matter)

A perfect example is the display screen. I've read numerous messages
about 'Yes, we're doing Y2K conversion, but only in the program. The
displays will remain MM/DD/YY.' WHY? WHY? WHY? In the decades to come
it will be much more important to know which century stuff happened.
Medical info, geneaology, and records keeping come immedately to mind.
If we don't prime all aspects of out systems, from the databases to
user interfaces (displays, paper, etc.), for open dates, why are we
even tackling Y2K?

 - lg -

--
A book: ...turn a page, read, read, read, read...
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lgoodbar@tecinfo.com  ICQ#504581  http://www.tecinfo.com/~lgoodbar/
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