writable cd rw drive which may store data to and read data from a cd rw 195 main memory 120 contains data 121 an operating system 122 an application 123 with a date conversion mechanism 124 and a date time parametric definition 125 data 121 represents any data that serves as input to or output from any program in computer system 100 operating system 122 is a multitasking operating system known in the industry as i5 os however those skilled in the art will appreciate that the spirit and scope of this disclosure and claims are not limited to any one operating system computer system 100 utilizes well known virtual addressing mechanisms that allow the programs of computer system 100 to behave as if they only have access to a large single storage entity instead of access to multiple smaller storage entities such as main memory 120 and dasd device 155 therefore while data 121 operating system 122 application 123 date conversion mechanism 124 and a date time parametric definition 125 are shown to reside in main memory 120 those skilled in the art will recognize that these items are not necessarily all completely contained in main memory 120 at the same time it should also be noted that the term u201c memory u201d is used herein generically to refer to the entire virtual memory of computer system 100 and may include the virtual memory of other computer systems coupled to computer system 100 processor 110 may be constructed from one or more microprocessors and or integrated circuits processor 110 executes program instructions stored in main memory 120 main memory 120 stores programs and data that processor 110 may access when computer system 100 starts up processor.