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From: fetter@cos.com (Bob Fetter)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: So, anyone got an imitation Multics 'memo' command?
Message-ID: <45901@cos.com>
Date: 29 May 91 13:13:54 GMT
References: <1991May14.161704.27609@gdr.bath.ac.uk> <1991May17.173657.29391@gdr.bath.ac.uk>
Reply-To: fetter@cos.UUCP (Bob Fetter)
Organization: Corporation for Open Systems, McLean, VA
Lines: 28

In article <1991May17.173657.29391@gdr.bath.ac.uk> P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee) writes:
>                                                        Do note it's
>non-trivial, primarily because the standard Unix date/time handling
>library routines aren't up to the task, so you'll have to invent
>something along those lines as well.

  Actually, a Unix implementation of convert_date_to_binary_ would IMHO
be the most useful product of this type of effort.  I would have to
think, though, that someone, somewhere, has done this already.

  The usefulness of dealing with date/time strings like

	next friday at noon
	two weeks after easter
	tomorrow at 9pm

would be nice.  An "extention" to the Multics notation, though, would
be negative times -- such as "last Thursday".  I don't think (remember)
the Multics routines handling negative offsets.  Did it?
	
  The last I looked at the Multics implementation, it was in rdc
(reduction_compiler) format (akin to 'yacc' on Unix, but done before
yacc came about <I think>).  Ah, this brings up a tangent...  The "Yet
Another Compiler Compiler" indicates that it's an offspring of earlier
work.  Does anyone know what the earlier work/compiler_compilers were?

  -Bob-