Date Format Question

Hi, Everybody,  

I have a problem with FORMS5.0 (in WIN 95) DATE FORMAT. The situation is like this:
 When editing Date fields, our user just want to type DD-MON ( meaning  date in current year ) Or DD-MON-YYYY( meaning date not current year),  most our dates are in current year, so there is a request to simplify  date field entry, but still flexible to handle year 2000. I have been  trying the follwing methods, but none of them seem satisfying:

1. CHANGE date field to CHAR field, use POST-TEXT-ITEM trigger padding 2-digit for year for the char field, then let forms convert it implicitly to date when commiting. But it only works for 2-digit-year, I mean, the implicit conversion only converts string like: DD-MON-YY, nothing else.
2. Change NLS_DATE_FORMAT to "DD-MON-YYYY", but it only handles that date format, nothing else

 Does anybody know a good , flexible date field entry method? How [Quoted]  can I change default conversion mask in To_date() so FORMS can [Quoted]  implicitly convert other date formats except "DD-MON-YY"? Any  Suggests are greatly appreciated.

 Sincerely,

SEAN ZHANG
<zhang_at_visi.net> Received on Mon Jan 12 1998 - 00:00:00 CET