Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!bellcore!tness7!ninja!sys1!sneaky!trsvax!uhclem
From: uhclem@trsvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.tandy
Subject: Re: Time on Tandy 3.2
Message-ID: <193300057@trsvax>
Date: 25 Apr 88 15:43:00 GMT
References: <1618@scicom.alphacdc.com>
Lines: 66
Nf-ID: #R:scicom.alphacdc.com:1618:trsvax:193300057:000:3009
Nf-From: trsvax.UUCP!uhclem    Apr 25 10:43:00 1988


<>
B>The advent of Daylight Savings Time this past week has brought out
B>an appearent bug in either XENIX 3.2 or MBASIC for the Tandy 16/6000.
B>Both products are from Microsoft.  The "bug" is as follows:

The problem is not with XENIX 3.2 but instead with the way that XENIX/UNIX
handles date conversions from the internal format.

Instead of putting a system call in the kernel like other operating systems,
UNIX/XENIX requires that each program carry the algorithms to do the job.
They are in one of the libraries that a program was linked with.   When the
government changed the way DST worked, every program would have to be
relinked with the newer library to work right.   Many other versions of
XENIX/UNIX on the market are having similar or worse problems depending on
how many programs on that system contain the new DST rules.   Full system
releases made after Jan 1987 generally fix the problem except for applications.

In XENIX 3.2, the routines that manage date conversions now examine a
file for the rules on how to handle DST.  So if the U.S. government
changes the fall date (which is expected), or makes any other change,
a change to the rule-file will fix handling for all programs.   This also
works nice if you happen to live in a country that is 15 minutes + solar time
or some other unusual local time convention.  

The files in the development system that utilize time will be replaced
in the 3.2 development system upgrade when it becomes available.  

Other programs like MBASIC will likely be stuck since Microsoft has
dropped support of all their 68000-based products except Multiplan.
(Microsoft announced this in late 1985.)   You might get the vendor
of some products to provide a corrected version by dealing with them
directly, but they will be unable to help until the development system
is available to them so that they can get the new libraries.


<This information is provided by an individual and is not nor should be
 construed  as  being  provided  by  Radio  Shack or Tandy Corp.  Radio
 Shack/Tandy Corp has no obligation to support the information provided
 in  any  way.   Since you  can't spell the  processors' name backwards
 and get "Letni", they probably don't care anyway.>
						
						"Thank you, Uh Clem."
						Frank Durda IV
						@ <trsvax!uhclem>
				...decvax!microsoft!trsvax!uhclem
				...convex!infoswx!hal6000!trsvax!uhclem

K:"We are the knights who say.... 'Letni'!"
A:"No, not the knights who say 'Letni'!"
K:"The same!"
G:"Who are they?"
K:"We are the keepers of the sacred words.... 'Letni',
  'mostly-upward-compatible' and 'fixed-in-the-next-mask'!
A:"Those who hear them seldom write reasonable code again!"
K:"The knights who say 'Letni'... demand a sacrifice!"
A:"Well what is it you want?"
K:"We want..... A Segment Register!!"
A:"A what?"
K:"Letni! Letni! Letni!"
A:"Please... no more!  We will find you a segment register."
K:"One that looks nice."
A:"Yes."
K:"And holds 32 bits but only uses 16."
A:"Of course."
and on and on...