Y2K was RE: [AM] ZZZ

(responding to Dagna)

> My comments in line, prefixed with DG. I also put a
> few headings in (this is getting to be more like a paper
> than an email.) If you are going to read the whole thing,
> this may be a good time to get a cup of coffee....

Done, thanks.

> It also took while due to distractions (work) having to
> be done...

I'm splitting my responses by your headings - I guess
some threads may die out quick, others of interest
won't have the moribund bits tagging along  ;-)



>> > Remember Y2K?
>> 
>> Indeed.  I didn't hear of any really bad horror stories,
>> but loads of potential for things to go wrong.  What I'd
>> like to do is take that as a driver for making that sort of change
>> easier.  Why was it so hard?  Can we do things now to make
>> any future change of that sort easier?
>
> DG: It was hard because there is a huge amount of very old
> code still in use, which was originally written when storage was
> expensive. Someone (Martin Butler?) calculated that the cost
> of the Y2K changes was less than the extra storage would have
> cost over the years if the dates had been written with four-digit
> years in the 60s and 70s. (I think the calculation also involved
> Present Value, which I was taught in accounting classes way
> back when PASCAL was new.)

Right, I remember when a good shoehorner was worth his salary
in saved bytes - never mind the value of the actual programming 
he did.  

Back when Y2K needed to be done, the cost of building anew
was still high - not that it's cheap today.  I'g guess more
systems would be replaced if it came on us today.

What about lessons learned, though?  Are people more aware
of the problems, are they taking action to ameliorate the risks?


Paul Oldfield

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