XRJJM%SCINT.SPAN@STAR.STANFORD.EDU (11/05/87)
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*Site: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center - Greenbelt, Maryland, USA.
*Position: 76 Deg. 52' 28.5" West, 38 Deg. 59' 59.8" North.
*From: John J. McMahon, Systems Programmer, STX - ST Systems Corporation.
*Project: COBE Science Data Room (CSDR), Code 401.1
*Reply-To: (Arpa-Internet) XRJJM%SCINT.SPAN@VLSI.JPL.NASA.GOV
*Reply-To: (Arpa-Internet) XRJJM%SCINT.SPAN@STAR.STANFORD.EDU
*Reply-To: (Bitnet) FASTEDDY@IAFBIT
*Reply-To: (Span/Physnet/Hepnet) 6182::XRJJM = SCINT::XRJJM (Node 6.38)
*Reply-To: (Span/Physnet/Hepnet) 6173::XRJJM = CSDR::XRJJM (Node 6.29)
*Reply-To: (TEXnet) UTADNX::UTSPAN::SCINT::XRJJM
Well... A standard time for all VMS would be nice, so cast your votes now
for a favorite. I would prefer GMT (Greenbelt Maryland Time), which would
coincide with where I am right now.
Serious though, I work on Astronomy project at NASA-Goddard, and all of our
machines are in GMT or UT or... well all I know is it's currently 5 hours
different from my watch. From an Astronomy standpoint, it's great... from
the standpoint of system utilities, it's a pain in the clock.
I experimented with several ways to do a quick and accurate convert from
'System Time (GMT)' to 'Local Time (EST)', and to make it as painless as
possible to change given the Standard to Daylight time conversions we have
twice a year. My solution was the following:
1. Define a global symbol called 'GMT_OFFSET', set it equal to the current
number of hours:minutes:seconds difference between 'Local' and 'System' time.
For Eastern Standard Time, GMT_OFFSET = "-5".
2. Reference that symbol using the F$CVTIME lexical in DCL, or similar routines
in high level languages (LIB$GET_SYMBOL, SYS$BINTIM... etc.).
The result is a 30 second change in a login procedure (SYS$SYLOGIN perhaps?)
will fix all of your local utilities. Comments ???
Regards,
^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v
John J. McMahon (Fast-Eddie)
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this letter are my own,
and are not meant to represent the views of my employers.