This file (DATE.TEC) was tested under RT-11 as: MUNG DATE,31-DEC-99 Of course, since the actual RT-11 command is only: DATE 31-DEC-99 using this "MUNG" version is useful only if it is important to keep a record of what date was entered. Still not very cool, but a bit better since any valid date can be used. ALSO, the letters "TECO" appear in the 49 characters which are an essential portion of the command sequence, being the name of the file that is used, although ANY other 4 characters (other than TECO) can be used instead. The 2 "J" characters in front of EG are useless and only serve to bring the total character count to 49. Without the 2 "J" characters and reducing the file name to a single character reduces the TECO command sequence to 41 characters, including the 3 pair of <CR><LF> characters. Since the date is entered by the user, the user can abide by what the operating system requires. The 49 characters include the <CR><LF> at the end of each line, especially since the <CR><LF> at the end of the first line is an essential part of the command sent to RT-11. If the <CR><LF> characters are not counted, remove the "JJ" preceding the EG command, add the text string "ITECO:$$" to the end of the the last line (in front of the <CR><LF>) and probably change the name of the file to "DATE" from "TECO". That would result in the second version and include the original request that the string "TECO:" be part of the 49 characters. It is interesting how an idea can evolve after thinking about it for a while. Jerome Fine ________________________ J^UDDATE $GD^UR $LGREWTECO.COM$ ECJJEG at TECO$$ ________________________ J^UDDATE $GD^UR $LGREWDATE.COM$ ECEG at DATE$$ITECO:$$ ________________________

First, I left out the "@" character immediately after the EG command on the last line. The result is to use the RT-11 command: DATE 1-DEC-99 in order to keep the character count the same. I corrected the contents of the 49 characters to reflect the missing "@" character in the two alternatives at the end of this e-mail. Since the number of characters in the file name, "SDATE.COM", can also be adjusted, the total number of characters can easily be reduced by 6 if the file name "D.COM" is used instead. It might be helpful to know that the 49 characters may also be typed in after the command: RUN TECO The result of executing the 49 characters is to produce the file SDATE.COM which contains the RT-11 command: DATE 1-DEC-99 The final TECO command, "EG at SDATE$$", then executes "SDATE.COM" as a command file and sets the date to: 1-Dec-1999.