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From: jkc@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Kevin Calhoun)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: String2Date (Script Manager 2.0)
Message-ID: <12668@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Date: 15 Mar 89 14:16:22 GMT
Sender: news@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU
Reply-To: jkc@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Kevin Calhoun)
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Lines: 32



Does the String2Date routine documented in the Inside Macintosh
Interim Chapter Draft of the Script Manager 2.0, dated February,
1989, really work under System 6.0.3?  I'm using the following
code and getting mixed results.  The handle h is locked when I
call String2Date --

  err := InitDateCache(@myDateCache);
  if err = noErr then
    string2dateResult := String2Date(h^, GetHandleSize(h)-1,
         @myDateCache, lengthUsed, dateTime);

If the text in h is "September 1, 1987", this works well, but if
it's "September 10, 1987", I get a privilege violation (of all things)
with the pc pointing to a STOP instruction (of all things) in the
itl4 resource.  Whenever I use this format for the date, as long as
the day of the month is less than 10, all's well, but otherwise I'm
in trouble.  If I use the short date format, as in "9/1/87", it
never works.

I'm trying to write a HyperCard XFCN that will convert dates
properly even when they fall outside of the magic range of 1/1/1904
to whenever it is that I can't remember now and can't calculate in
my head on the fly.  I suspect that HyperCard doesn't yet rely on
the new Script Manager routines because they don't work.  Can anyone
confirm my suspicion?

--Kevin Calhoun
  Courseware Development
  Dartmouth College
"Is is buggy in here or is it just me?"