I thought you might like to read the following News.
Enjoy.
Jonathan A. Andemicael
(ja122r@nih.gov)
(dscorpio@POserver-d.nih.gov)
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IBM fights year 2000 bug.
By Mike Ricciuti
September 4, 1997, 7:45 a.m. PT
IBM (IBM) is adding extensions to its development
tools that could help big companies stamp out the
millennium bug.
The Year 2000 problem, or the millennium bug,
affects computer software which only uses the last
two numbers of the year, such as 97, instead of
1997, to track dates. So when 00 comes up for the
year 2000, computers will view it as 1900 instead,
causing widespread--and unpredictable--problems.
IBM today announced the Millennium Language
Extensions, a set of software development tools
which extend IBM's Cobol and PL/I compilers to
automate a technique called "date century
windowing" used to alter existing programs.
The Extensions will be included as part of the
company's VisualAge 2000 development tool, a
package specifically aimed at corporate developers
attempting to update existing software to recognize
the new millennium.
Updating existing software to recognize the year
2000 has become a monumental task for big
business, governments, and universities, say
analysts. The Gartner Group estimates that it could
cost between $300 and $600 billion for U.S.
companies to convert whole systems to recognize
the year 2000.
IBM says the Extensions for versions of PL/I
running on OS/2 and Windows NT will ship in
October, and for Cobol compilers on OS/2 and
Windows NT in the first half of next year. IBM also
will ship the Cobol tools on its OS/390, MVS,
VM, and VSE mainframe operating systems in the
first half of next year. Pricing has not been
announced.