This variable sets the base date to be used for Julian date calculations. It is used in conjunction with the DATE XFD directive.
To define your own base date for Julian dates, set this variable to a date having the format YYYYMMDD.
The default value is set internally at 01/01/4713 BC. (Dates other than the default must be greater than 01/02/4713 BC.)
For example, suppose your COBOL program uses dates in the form of the number of days since 12/31/1899. If you want to store these dates in a database accessed by Acu4GL, you can set your DATE XFD directives to be $XFD DATE=JJJJJJ (make sure that the number of characters matches your date field). Then you should set the configuration variable 4GL_JULIAN_BASE_DATE to 18991231.
If you are using the run time intrinsic functions that work with Julian dates, set 4GL_JULIAN_BASE_DATE to December 31, 1600 using the Gregorian calendar.