From: dewarr@my-dejanews.com
Subject: Re: Y2K Issues
Date: 1998/10/27
Date: 1998-10-27T00:00:00+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <713nvs$cv8$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 710nnc$jop@felix.seas.gwu.edu
In article <710nnc$jop@felix.seas.gwu.edu>,
mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) wrote:
> Unlike the Y2K "problem", which is caused by the unintended
> consequences of an old but intentional engineering decision
> (2-digit years in the days of expensive storage), the leap-year
> bug is a _bug_, and is, apparently much more widespread than
> just this Microsoft case. In scouring code for the 2-digit
> problem, they are discovering the bug as well.
>
> Amazing. Where did these people go to school?
I object to Mike characterizing the Y2K problem as other than a bug. yes
I know that this is a popular attitude, particularly encouraged by software
companies who want you to pay for Y2K "enhancements", but the fact remains
it is indeed a bug. Saving storage at the expense of malfunction is not an
acceptable trade off. Any reasonably careful programmer should have forseen
the problem and dealt with it (using any of the approaches that are familiarly
used for "fixing" this "problem", e.g. windowing.
Someone reminded me that I first mentioned the Y2K problem to them in 1975,
and certainly I was not the only one to forsee this problem.
Unless the specification of the problem specifically noted that the software
was intended to stop working in 2000, introducing this kind of bug into
programs was indeed a bug. Just because a bug is a huge one with horrible
consequences does not stop it being a bug!
Note that the storage usage argument is a weak one. Many of the Y2K solutions
solve the problem without using extra storage (fixed and sliding windows,
various encodings etc).
Robert Dewar
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next prev parent reply other threads:[~1998-10-27 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 61+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
1998-10-19 0:00 Y2K Issues John J Cupak Jr
1998-10-19 0:00 ` dewar
1998-10-19 0:00 ` Tucker Taft
1998-10-19 0:00 ` Joe Gwinn
1998-10-20 0:00 ` Joe Gwinn
1998-10-19 0:00 ` Niklas Holsti
[not found] ` <362B8D2F.802F42E6@lmco.com>
1998-10-20 0:00 ` dennison
1998-10-23 0:00 ` Michael F Brenner
1998-10-20 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-10-22 0:00 ` Mark Bennison
1998-10-22 0:00 ` dennison
1998-10-23 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-10-25 0:00 ` Michael Feldman
1998-10-26 0:00 ` dennison
1998-10-27 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-10-27 0:00 ` Tucker Taft
1998-10-27 0:00 ` Y2K Issues (well, not really...) Dave Wood
1998-10-28 0:00 ` Y2K Issues dennison
1998-10-28 0:00 ` Dave Wood
1998-10-27 0:00 ` John Herro
1998-10-26 0:00 ` Robert A Duff
1998-10-26 0:00 ` Joel Seidman
1998-10-26 0:00 ` Y2K Issues - Warning Off-Topic Al Christians
1998-10-27 0:00 ` Y2K Issues dewarr
1998-10-27 0:00 ` dewarr [this message]
1998-10-29 0:00 ` system
1998-10-29 0:00 ` Al Christians
1998-11-02 0:00 ` Marin David Condic
1998-11-04 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-11-05 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-11-06 0:00 ` Jerry van Dijk
1998-11-07 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-11-06 0:00 ` Al Christians
1998-11-08 0:00 ` Jerry van Dijk
1998-11-08 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-11-06 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-10-27 0:00 ` Gautier de Montmollin
1998-10-28 0:00 ` adam
1998-10-29 0:00 ` Gautier.DeMontmollin
1998-10-28 0:00 ` adam
1998-10-28 0:00 ` Al Christians
1998-10-29 0:00 ` Samuel Mize
1998-11-04 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-10-28 0:00 ` Arthur Evans Jr
1998-10-28 0:00 ` dewar
1998-10-28 0:00 ` Gautier.DeMontmollin
1998-10-28 0:00 ` Jean-Pierre Rosen
1998-10-28 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-10-29 0:00 ` Dale Stanbrough
1998-10-29 0:00 ` Tucker Taft
1998-10-29 0:00 ` dewar
1998-10-29 0:00 ` Tucker Taft
1998-10-30 0:00 ` dennison
1998-10-31 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-11-02 0:00 ` dennison
1998-10-30 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-10-31 0:00 ` dewar
1998-10-30 0:00 ` Dale Stanbrough
1998-10-29 0:00 ` Mark A Biggar
1998-10-29 0:00 ` Samuel Mize
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
1998-10-23 0:00 Condic, Marin D.
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