Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!bellcore!att!pacbell.com!decwrl!fernwood!portal!cup.portal.com!ts
From: ts@cup.portal.com (Tim W Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: need "yy-ddd-hh:mm:ss ==> (time_t) clock" converter
Message-ID: <39643@cup.portal.com>
Date: 28 Feb 91 10:05:14 GMT
References: <TSINGLE.91Jan18120847@sunland.gsfc.nasa.gov> <368@bria>
  <6586@gssc.UUCP><2323@stsci.EDU>
  <1991Feb18.133937.28469@fivegl.co.nz><790@saxony.pa.reuter.COM>
  <ENAG.91Feb26020137@holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 41

< I can't believe this.  At run-time, you do useful things, not table
< generation.  You can easily do it pre-compile-time, once.  You write a
< few shell commands to do that, or some simple-minded elisp code, and
< include the code as a comment:

[He then gives examples of including in comments in the source code
suggested shell or elisp commands that the user can use to generate
the table]

Well, I can't believe this, either!  What about simply doing this:

	#define	JAN	0
	#define	FEB	JAN+31
	#define	MAR	FEB+28
	#define	APR	MAR+31
	#define	MAY	APR+30
	#define	JUN	MAY+31
	#define	JUL	JUN+30
	#define	AUG	JUL+31
	#define	SEP	AUG+31
	#define	OCT	SEP+30
	#define	NOV	OCT+31
	#define	DEC	NOV+30

	int days[] =
	{
		JAN, FEB, MAR, APR,
		MAY, JUN, JUL, AUG,
		SEP, OCT, NOV, DEC
	};

When someone wishes to port this program to a different machine, they
don't have to have the shell or emacs or other tools to generate the
table.

< Morale: Let the machines do the chores.

But going out of our way to create these chores for the machines to do
seems to me to be counterproductive!

							Tim Smith