Re: Question: How will the Year 2000 bug impact your work?

In <326E4BF2.708@perth.ccmail.compuserve.com> Colin Thompson <Colin_Thompson@perth.ccmail.compuserve.com> writes: > >That is an interesting point, but is it correct? Has anyone ever used >software that calculates a future value for something? Like financial >software?? What happens if you try to calculate a value past the year >2000?? > >Also, what happens if YOUR suppliers don't become Date 2000 compliant?? >Will your business survive if you can't use your EDI links. Simpler >still, what if the supplier of your core products can no longer find >your order in their system because it was put entered in 1999 and now >the system thinks it was put in with a date 99 years into the future?? I was writing financial software in 1984 which calculated 30-year mortgages. Every date had a validation clause which either allowed dates earlier than "today" for things like birthdates or later than "today" for calculated or user-entered financial information. Of course, "today" was moveable, so users could back-date some information. The switch to dates past year 2000 was invisible to the user. I simply stored the date correctly in the validation clause. I still use updated versions of these clauses where necessary. Interestingly, I've been using a shareware date lookup program which I had to re-program because the latest possible date was 12/31/99. Merely a matter of re-setting a limit, but this was a program I got within the last year! Barbara Paltiel purgamentum init, purgamentum exit