From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,92471489ebbc99c6 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Al Christians Subject: Re: Y2K Issues - Warning Off-Topic Date: 1998/10/26 Message-ID: <36353FF5.D8F23DA8@easystreet.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 405421009 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <362B53A3.64E266AB@res.raytheon.com> <362B8D2F.802F42E6@lmco.com> <710nnc$jop@felix.seas.gwu.edu> <3635225A.41C67EA6@smtp.svl.trw.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: news14.ispnews.com 909458856 206.103.56.60 (Mon, 26 Oct 1998 22:27:36 EDT) Organization: Trillium Resources Corporation MIME-Version: 1.0 NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 22:27:36 EDT Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1998-10-26T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Joel Seidman wrote: > > Robert A Duff wrote: > > I also can't help but point out that two 8-bit quantities can of course > > store a year-range of 65,536 years, so something's wrong when somebody > > decides to use 16 bits to represent a 100-year range, because they're > > short on memory, and 32 bits is too costly. That kind of decision > > sounds more "convenient" or "expedient" than "intentional". > > Obviously if you really wanted to pack numbers you'd use BCD or binary. > I've always thought attributing the "saving memory" motivation that you > see in popular explanations is overly kind, a bit of a social lie. Many of the business systems originated in the 1401 era. The IBM 1401 (a vey popular early-60's business machine) used numeric characters, but it was possible to add an overpunch that would indicate an overflow out of the high order position. With a variety of overpunches, a few centuries could be accomodated in a 2-digit field, more or less transparently to the programmer. There was no comparable support for bcd or binary formats on those machines. When the 360's became the typical business machine, the 2-digit-year record formats persisted but the overpunch facility was lost. I guess anyone who gave it any thought figured the overpunches could come back if and when they were ever needed. It wasn't just space that was being saved. Punched cards were a standard storage medium. For example, large sorts were done more on card sorters than on other devices. The requirement of fitting a record on a card and the limitation of card interpreters to only print the first 60 or so columns of data on the card were also strong motivation for 2-digit (or less) year fields. Al