Hyperion Entertainment Message Boards

@xenix, my request is simple:
- have the international YYYMMDD as the default format in as much applications as possible that produce output lists. This will enable you to sort and combine those outputs, making the best of their respective strengths.
- have at least the possibility to chose that format in these commands/applications
- have a possibility to chose that format in Locale
The combination, sorting etc of different outputs is what i want to be able to do.

The fact that a lot of commands or applications producng dated output , do have the ability to sort on date, is nice but is not helpfull for this, when they all do produce different dateformats : You can't easily combine them.

The default dateformat with the Yesterday/aujour'dhui strings, especially. cannot be combined and sorted afterwards ( Example : how would you colbine the results of searches done at different dates ? The yesterdays may oint to different dates)

FindMore and SF (Show Files) seem the only that have the possibility to output in international format. Findmore does not have time info though, and you have to copypaste the result. This is not "scripting-friendly"

I posted the suggestion for a template to SF here: http://www.amigans.net/modules/xforum/v ... mpost86864

JosDuchIt wrote:@xenix, my request is simple:
- have the international YYYMMDD as the default format in as much applications as possible that produce output lists. This will enable you to sort and combine those outputs, making the best of their respective strengths.

- have a possibility to chose that format in Locale


The default dateformat with the Yesterday/aujour'dhui strings, especially. cannot be combined and sorted afterwards ( Example : how would you colbine the results of searches done at different dates ? The yesterdays may oint to different dates)

I too think it's a good idea to have a profile for "International Date format" in Locale settings, and would welcome it a lot. For my part, I disliked the "tomorrow, yesterday, future" output in the shell too. Is there any command that can display the real date of a "future" file anyway?

Is there any command that can display the real date of a "future" file anyway?

Why should there be command for this?
'Future' can only mean two things:

• you need to set the current time/date for your system
• the date is invalid

Amigo1 wrote:[...] Is there any command that can display the real date of a "future" file anyway?

The List command does have a "DATES" switch, which will output all dates in the format DD-MMM-YY.

nbache wrote:I agree. Do you happen to have a list of the ones which have this problem?

I try to add 3rd party commands to a seperate directory but it's possible that one or two 3rd party commands have accidently been installed into my C: directory. Here is a list of C: commands that have no Amiga template (when ? entered as arg on command line):

AppListInfo
cmiboost - crashes when ? entered
fc-cache
fc-cat
fc-list
fc-match
FlashTool
fs_set_flush_strategy
hi
identd
IDETool
ipf
ipfstat
ipmon
ipnat
JST - Creates empty file named ? barrage of requesters, opens OS3 WorkBench
NVGetVar - Can't escape command with Ctrl-C
OpenSSL
P96LoadDefaultMonitor
poolstat
Python
Reboot
ReloadApplist
rxc
Show68kLoads
ShowAppList
smartctl
tcc
tco
tcpdump
te
ts
Uptime
WHDLoad
xadLibInfo
xadUnF script bit not set
xDir
xLoadSeg
xPK
XpkMasterPrefs - Waits for input. Must use Ctrl-c
xQuery
xType
xUp

Some problems are noted beside a few command. Some commands are destructive if you enter a CR after a template is displayed. For example, the reboot command will reboot the system if you hit Enter after the template is displayed. If a user wants to see the template for reboot and decides not to execute the command; tough luck.

xenic wrote:

nbache wrote:I agree. Do you happen to have a list of the ones which have this problem?

I try to add 3rd party commands to a seperate directory but it's possible that one or two 3rd party commands have accidently been installed into my C: directory. Here is a list of C: commands that have no Amiga template (when ? entered as arg on command line):

...

Some problems are noted beside a few command. Some commands are destructive if you enter a CR after a template is displayed. For example, the reboot command will reboot the system if you hit Enter after the template is displayed. If a user wants to see the template for reboot and decides not to execute the command; tough luck.

I can confirm your list, with the exemption of WHDLoad calls the Grim Reaper, and xadUnF had the script bit set here, I cannot recall to have done that by myself.

And about having the possibility to "Esc" or "CTRL-C" every command once called the template, I was thinking the same few days ago when I had your same idea to go through all the commands too. The idea of the developers not having the manpower to change all the commands anyway and with more important things to implement/solve on the OS too, set me off of reporting that.

I wonder however if there would be any drawback or the need of some radical underlying change if the commands accept CTRL-C, maybe in scripting. Thinking of FAILAT maybe not getting a return error?

gazelle wrote:

Amigo1 wrote:[...] Is there any command that can display the real date of a "future" file anyway?

The List command does have a "DATES" switch, which will output all dates in the format DD-MMM-YY.

Thanks a lot! very appreciated! )
Just for curiosity I checked the old "List v37.5" and the "DATES" switch seem to be around since a while, it somehow slipped my mind.

A few are documented in the Documentation/c drawer, this is a minority though
It is possible that some doc can be found elsewheren, but then surely taking that over ot this drawer is not a major programming effort.
As undocumented tools are probably barely used, it may be that programming efforts just miss their effect
I guess a number are of the type "don't use if you don't know what you are doing" but still ...

y/n name

n AppListInfo
n cmiboost - crashes when ? entered
n fc-cache
n fc-cat
n fc-list
n fc-match
y FlashTool
n fs_set_flush_strategy
y hi
n identd
y IDETool
n ipf
n ipfstat
n ipmon
n ipnat
n JST - Creates empty file named ? barrage of requesters, opens OS3 WorkBench
n NVGetVar - Can't escape command with Ctrl-C (NVSetvar has do too)
n OpenSSL
n P96LoadDefaultMonitor
n poolstat
n Python
y Reboot
n ReloadApplist
y rxc
n Show68kLoads
n ShowAppList
y smartctl (smartctl_cmd.doc)
y tcc
y tco
n tcpdump
y te
y ts
y Uptime
n WHDLoad
n xadLibInfo
n xadUnF script bit not set
n xDir
n xLoadSeg
n xPK
n XpkMasterPrefs - Waits for input. Must use Ctrl-c
n xQuery
n xType
n xUp

Amigo1 wrote: And about having the possibility to "Esc" or "CTRL-C" every command once called the template, I was thinking the same few days ago when I had your same idea to go through all the commands too. The idea of the developers not having the manpower to change all the commands anyway and with more important things to implement/solve on the OS too, set me off of reporting that.

I wonder however if there would be any drawback or the need of some radical underlying change if the commands accept CTRL-C, maybe in scripting. Thinking of FAILAT maybe not getting a return error?

Some standard AmigaDOS commands do respond to Ctrl-C but only if you hit "Enter" after Ctrl-C. I wrote a small test command and entering Ctrl-C after the template is displayed causes a break (Ctrl-C) signal to be sent to the command process but Readargs() returns successfully and the break signal is not detected until the command checks for a break signal or enters a Wait() state with Ctrl-C being one of the signals waited for.

Since the standard documented use of Readargs() requires that the return value be checked for failure, all commands that use Readargs() and have a standard Amiga template could be made to respond to a break (Ctrl-C) by having Readargs() check for Ctrl-C (or Ctrl-C signal) and return a failure code. In other words, none of the commands need to be changed; only Readargs() needs to be changed.

JosDuchIt wrote:A few are documented in the Documentation/c drawer, this is a minority though
It is possible that some doc can be found elsewheren, but then surely taking that over ot this drawer is not a major programming effort.
As undocumented tools are probably barely used, it may be that programming efforts just miss their effect
I guess a number are of the type "don't use if you don't know what you are doing" but still ...

I got started checking the C: commands when I decided to make my own help files for commands that have a help file. However, I was dismayed at the number of missing help files. Since I started working in alphabetical order, I only got as far a a help file for AddAudioModes because there is no documentation in OS4 for AppListInfo and many other commands. I did end up creating lists of commands with no standard templates, commands that have no help files and 68k commands that need to be updated to PPC.