ascii-time(3)

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NAME

ascii-time - Return the current time as a string

SYNOPSIS

ascii-time

DESCRIPTION

ascii-time returns the current time as a formatted string in #p9 which is equivalent to #l9 for the calling macro. The format of the resultant string is determined by the variable .ascii-time.format which is defined using the following escape characters:

%%  - % char
%Y  - 4 digit year
%y  - 2 digit year
%B  - Full month word
%b  - 3 letter month
%m  - 2 digit month
%#m - 1 digit month
%d  - 2 digit day
%#d - 1 digit day
%A  - Fill Week day word
%a  - 3 letter week day
%H  - 2 digit 24 hour
%M  - 2 digit minute
%S  - 2 digit second

The default value of .ascii-time.format when not defined is:

"%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Y"

To change the default date layout then .ascii-time.format should be defined in user.emf. i.e.

set-variable .ascii-time.format "%H:%M:%S %Y-%m-%d"

EXAMPLE

The following is taken from etfinsrt.emf, it uses ascii-time in replacing " $ASCII_TIME$ " with the current.

0 define-macro etfinsrt 
    . 
    . 
    ; Change the create date $ASCII_TIME$. 
    beginning-of-buffer 
    ; Get ASCII time in #l9 
    ascii-time 
    !force replace-string "\\$ASCII_TIME\\$" #l9 
    . 
    . 
!emacro

NOTES