[Info-vax] 2010 date issues

[Tom Wade]

> There was a radio program the other day where a experienced computer 
> engineer was interviewed about these kind of problems. He said that many 
> software companies did kind of shortsighted workarounds for Y2K which 
> are blowing up this year or anytime later. Some have blown up earlier.

I expect to see more and more of these.

Another typical 'short-cut' was where systems have a two digit field in a database record for the 
date.  The Y2K fix involves translating between the 2-digit stored date, and a 4-digit display date. 
  To do this, some cutoff is assumed, for example if the 2-digit date is < 50 it is assumed 2000 
(e.g. 2012) and if it is greater, it is assumed 1900 (e.g. 1960).

The problem is where the cutoff is chosen.  It would correspond to the oldest record in the 
database, and since some systems store dates back as far as 1920 (e.g. the birth date of someone who 
was 80 at the millennium), the problem is going to repeat itself by 2020.

What is very depressing is the speed with which most people have lapsed back into 2 digit years 
again, thus not learning the very expensive lessons of Y2K, in the mistaken belief the problem won't 
be seen again in their lifetimes.

Tom Wade

(who actually got a support call early on 2000-01-01 about a system that was reporting the date as 
1900, due to a patch not having been applied).