Unix Timestamp

[Richard Kreiss]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: filepro-list-bounces+rkreiss=verizon.net at lists.celestial.com
> [mailto:filepro-list-bounces+rkreiss=verizon.net at lists.celestial.com] On
> Behalf Of Fairlight
> Sent: Sunday, December 29, 2013 11:32 PM
> To: filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
> Subject: Re: Unix Timestamp
> 
> On Sun, Dec 29, 2013 at 09:52:17PM -0500, Kenneth Brody thus spoke:
> > As I recall, "Unix time" is the number of seconds since 00:00:00 UTC
> > 1-Jan-1970.  I do not know if it takes leap seconds into account.
> >
> > Assuming leap seconds are not involved...
> >
> > I believe that this *untested* pseudo-code would do it:
> >
> >      Epoch(10,mdyy/) = "01/01/1970"
> >      Date(10,mdyy/) = Epoch + INT(UnixTime / "86400")
> >      Time(8,TIME) = MOD(UnixTime,"86400") / "3600"
> >
> > (There are 86,400 seconds in a day and 3,600 seconds in an hour.)
> >
> > Note, however, that this results in a UTC time, and is not adjusted
> > for the current timezone.  This can be done by adding/subtracting the
> > appropriate number of seconds from the original UnixTime.
> 
> For the love of all that's good and holy, why reinvent the wheel that's been
> available at the system level for ages?
> 
> Why not just supply fP wrapper functions for the standard functions time(),
> mktime(), localtime(), gmtime(), et al, so it's done properly, without
> guesswork?  The system -will- do all the work for you, as intended.  It will even
> take time zones into account.
> 
> I've only been asking for proper unix timestamp functionality in filePro since
> what, 1993?
> 
> Oh wait...but we have a spell checker...  Nevermind.  That's infinitely more
> useful!
> 
> Ob: *eyeroll*
> 
> mark->

Mark,

This has been an ongoing issue with those who have owned filePro.  They will program what they need internally for their client base first and now for anyone who will pay for a function to be added and lastly, those items which we developers have wished for years.

Years ago I went to a software conference with my wife,  held by the company whose hospital management system her hospital was using.  One interesting thing they did was to poll the user base for which modifications/additions would be added to the next release.  The users actually got to vote on what would be added from the list of all the requests.  A revolutionary idea, add the functions that the greatest number of users need not just what the company's management thought they might need.  

You can gather from this that the items presented had already been vetted by their programming staff and management to see if the modification made sense.

I have a feeling that the spell checker was something fpTech needed and went along with the word-wrap function to allow filepro to act like a mini-word processor.

A few years ago I might have mentioned compatibility between *nix systems and the windows system.  But that's not the case anymore as they are maintaining 2 versions of each.  The standard release i.e. 5.7.00 and currently 5.7.3.  Who knows, someone may pay for the *nix wrapper functions you outlined above.

Then again, doing so would take the "fun" out of programming a system call to get this information. :)  Just consider all those who replied with a solution.

Richard