Re: [patch #5511] Clean up variable formats

[Ben Pfaff]

John Darrington <address@hidden> writes:

> On Fri, Nov 03, 2006 at 04:53:52AM +0000, Ben Pfaff wrote:
>      
>      > * fmt_date_template: There is an analagous function in
>      > src/ui/gui/var-type-dialog.c called dollar_format_template. Would it 
> make
>      > sense to put these in the same file ?
>      
>      We could do something like that, sure.  Would it make sense to
>      generalize it, to make a function that returns a "picture" of
>      what a format outputs, for any given format?
>
> Possibly.  So far as I can see, your fmt_date_template function is
> currently unused.  Were you intending to use it just for debugging?

No.  The data_in and data_out routines have been rewritten to use
it in input parsing and output construction.  I'll present the
patches that do this soon.

> If not, it ought to be locale dependent.  

I actually don't think so: the SPSS manuals don't say anything
about adaptation to language here, and so I assume that these are
not locale dependent.

> On the other hand, if debug is the primary motivation for this
> function, then maybe it ought to be seperate from
> dollar_format_template which is for user interaction.

I think they have a different purpose: fmt_date_template is for
internal use in parsing and output, dollar_format_template is
useful for user interaction.
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