GIDDAY::GILLINGS "a crucible of informative mistake" 15 lines   6-FEB-1996 17:21
                            -< unsupported method >-
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    I learned this from Dave Cantor. It's totally unsupported and may stop
    working eventually, but it seems to work on all versions of OpenVMS,
    VAX and Alpha to date.
    
    $ binary_time[0,32] = %xA4FE0000	! low longword of binary date
    $ binary_time[32,32] = %x0099D8C4	! high longword
    $ date_string=f$cvtime(f$fao("!%D",-
    	f$cvui(32,32,f$fao("!AD",8,binary_time))),"ABSOLUTE")
    $ show sym date_string
      DATE_STRING = "7-FEB-1996 09:10:53.00"
    
    The F$FAO magic depends on the way DCL stores strings internally. It's
    not at all supported. Use at your own risk.
    
    						John Gillings, Sydney CSC