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

I have had several preliminary meetings with prospective clients who have serious Y2K problems, most of them on mainframes running COBOL or RPG apps. So far all my analyses indicate that it would be far less expensive to re-write the entire apps in a modern 4GL like Progress and run the app in a modern client-server environment, than to try to fix the present code. Few of the apps really require a mainframe, although in those few cases the mainframe could continue to be used as a data server. Of course, the existing programming staffs oppose any such suggestion. It would require them to learn new skills, and eliminate the need for most of them. I suspect as more IT managers begin to confront the issue seriously, there is going to be a major increase in demand for re-writes and conversions, not just to deal with the Y2K problem. The problems involving PC BIOS and PC utilities are readily solvable. It is all that legacy COBOL and RPG code that requires attention. If anyone is interested in getting an analysis, let me know. --Jon ============================================================== Starflight Corporation http://www.crl.com/~jdr/ 1731 Howe Av #370, Sacramento, CA 95825 6900 San Pedro #147-230, San Antonio, TX 78216 916/927-4935, 916/450-7941VM http://www.the-spa.com/jon.roland/ mailto:jdr@crl.com ==============================================================