🚀 go-pugleaf

I've run into a problem with reading the keyboard clock, and I don't
know whether it is an error in the Abacus documentation, or a problem
with TDI Modula-2, or a problem with the clock.

The function XBIOS.GetDateTime(), which is supposedly equivalent to
gettime() in C, reads a LONGCARDINAL (long) value.  I want to check for
a valid time by seeing if the year is 1987 or later, which I do with the
test:  IF XBIOS.GetDateTime() > 0E000000H THEN ..., which should be
equivalent to comparing the value returned by gettime to 0x0E000000 in
C.  When I do this in a program that runs from the AUTO folder after a
cold boot (Machine turned off!), the test is always TRUE.  I thought
that the keyboard clock under those circumstances was set in 1985, which
would be 0A00.....H.  How do other programs, like Braner's AUTODISK,
read this variable, and is there a difference between C and modula-2 in
this? 

By the way, I have tried comparing to LONGCARD(0E000000H), which is
equivalent to the cast (long) 0x0E000000.  Also, if I use the GEMDOS
function to read the clock, GEMDOS.GetDate(date) and compare date to
0E00H, it works OK.
-- 
Bill Silvert
Marine Ecology Laboratory, Dartmouth, NS, Canada
CDN or BITNET: silvert@cs.dal.cdn	-- UUCP: ..!{seismo|utai}!dalcs!silvert
ARPA: silvert%dalcs.uucp@seismo.CSS.GOV	-- CSNET: silvert%cs.dal.cdn@ubc.csnet