>What's the big deal about upgrading Year 2000 programs?  It seems pretty
>simple to me.  Just use a search and replace on any source code, find the
>relevant routines, and fix them.  Even better, just stick in a jump to a
>glue routine to deal with various aspects of the problem.  I don't know
>COBOL, but it can't be that much different from BASIC, C, or Pascal.
>
>I probably sound incredibly naive, but I'm curious because many companies
>and bureaucracies have a tendency to work hard instead of work smart.

Just fixing the date is only half of the problem. Those systems were
designed to use the hard code of "19" and then the two digit year. Which
means in the files, they only saved the two digits not the 19 (it was a
constant).

So now we go into the file and hard code a "20" to replace the "19" but
what happens to all the accounting file dates after we make this mod? You
get billed for future services...;-)

So the whole file structures need to change and thats a tall order with no
quick fix in site. Which is a good reason on the Mac to store your date as
a LONG INT. Good for a long time. At least til Windows 2025..

Mel Patrick - theWabbitGuy - mel@...
http://www.intergate.bc.ca/business/mel