How do you want the support?
If it is for data import, then you can write your own import utility that
supports this format and you can implement this immediately without the need
for touching the server.
If it is for importing from external files, then you can use the substring udf
and a stored procedure to convert the SDF date to a regular date.
If it is for current use in sql statements, you can write UDF's that converts
SDF/IB dates and allows thier use in current sql systems.

This would allow for immediate use of SDF dates and not require any
modifications to the server.

We must try to double check our wish lists. If we get over zealous adding
features to IB, then we will never have a stable release and we will be forever
trapped with buggy code.
The linux kernel is undergoing that problem right now. The latest 'stable'
kernel, is very unstable. They are rushing to fix it, but as they have been
adding features, they have been causing domino style errors in totally
different areas.

IB is powerful enough as it is to be easily extended to handle things like
this. It is not as easy as other platforms, but, I will take stability over
ease of use, any day.

regards

Dalton

Joseph Alba wrote:

> Interbase does not recognize the SDF representation for dates which is
> YYYYMMDD. This is quite important because XBase could easily throw external
> files to IB, using a
>
> COPY TO myExternal.txt SDF
>
> command. (For purposes of Migration, coordination with legacy software,
> etc...
>
> Joseph Alba
> jalba@....
>
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