how to make DEFAULT CENTURY be the current century

[Deskin, Bob]

Well, we could argue this one on and on. However, here's the rationale
behind the default century and why we don't just assume it's the current
century.

Before 1986, we didn't have century support. All of our date types were
century excluded. When we implemented century support, we introduced the
idea of a default century because all of those existing dates had to belong
somewhere. When they were created, they were presumably in century 19. Now
if we simply used the current century, then at midnight on Dec 31, 1999, any
century excluded dates still around would immediately be in century 20 if
they were used in date calculations. Probably not what the designer
intended.

Now we can argue about full windowing another time, but suffice it to say
that our existing scheme provides upward compatibility to long-time
customers who may still have century excluded dates. Of course they won't be
changing to default century 20 automatically.

If you already have all your dates as century included, the actual need for
the default century is vastly reduced. Typically it would only be used for
date entry. And that's where the INPUT CENTURY feature is better than just
assuming the current century. If you move to a version that has the INPUT
CENTURY today, and you have all dates as century included, then you really
don't have to change your dictionary at the century cutover. Just let the
INPUT CENTURY do it's thing.

Bob Deskin              
Senior Product Advisor  bob.deskin@cognos.com
Cognos Inc.             (613) 738-1338 ext 4205 FAX: (613) 228-3149
3755 Riverside Drive P.O. Box 9707 Stn. T, Ottawa ON K1G 4K9 CANADA


-----Original Message-----
From: Glenn J. Koster, Sr. [mailto:gkoster@mbsnav.com]
Sent: Monday, January 25, 1999 10:25 AM
To: powerh-l@lists.swau.edu
Cc: mclsys@home.com; Shawn_Gordon@Notes.FH.com
Subject: Re: how to make DEFAULT CENTURY be the current century


Michael Lee wrote (in respsonse to Shawn Gordon:

> You seemed to have missed the point here.

No - I think the problem is that you missed the point ... and COGNOS
missed the boat on this one.

I would think that if you are truly Y2K compliant and a user doesn't
enter a century, then the default century should be the century from the
system date not some arbitrary value from a dictionary that is
applicable to only a single product (COGNOS).  If COGNOS wants to
implement the option of "INPUT CENTURY..." - that's fine and should
overwrite the default century calculation... but the user should not
have to be concerned with modify the dictionary on 12-31-1999.

Glenn

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