There are programs out there that need to look ahead 20, 30 or more years
such as loan amortization programs, and loan payment schedules. There is a
possibility that these might not produce 100% precise results unless the
developer of the app understood the OS well enough to compensate for the
date format limitations. Of course that assumes such a workaround exists. I
missed some of the earlier thread on this subject, but I just used Prefs to
set the latest date possible on my Palm III and it's 12/31/2031.
Interesting.
Mitch
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Aaron Ardiri [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 1999 11:11 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: y2k bug inherent in DateType?
>
> On Wed, 7 Apr 1999, Steve Patt wrote:
> > Keith noted about DateTypes:
> >
> > >It's clearly stored as a 7-bit value, meaning that it
> > >can contain anything from 0 to 127 (hmmm...unsigned?). That means it
> can
> > >represent the years from 1904 to 2031.
> >
> > Which is, of course, not a Y2K bug but a Y2031 bug. For all the things
> > Palm engineers did right, designing an operating system in 1996 (or
> > thereabouts) with a 35 year life span was, IMHO, unconscionable.
>
> actually... considering the space limitations of the Palm Pilot..
> why is this a problem?
>
> do you really think the Palm Pilot will still be operational in
> 2031? i dont use my XT anymore.. something better is here.. i
> assume that the same will happen with the Palm Pilot.
>
> the designers probably wanted to use as little space as possible.
> i am sure my Palm III will be of no use in 2000. 2Mb is not enough,
> and i am not going to pay for the memory upgrade - so i will
> buy another one.
>
> i am sure that when 3COM releases a new Palm Pilot in 2031, it
> will have an updated ROM so it will be able to handle the dates
> outside the current limitations.
>
> wont you be buying that? maybe it will have a 16bit LCD screen,
> brain probes etc.. the old Palm III will mean nothing then.
>
> just my 2c.
>
> maybe now however it should be taken note that one day there
> may need to be a change in the way in which we develop software.
> the whole problem with Y2K is that people got used to the
> two digit representation..
>
> it is up to the programmers NOW to make sure this does not
> happen with the palm pilot.
>
> cheers.
>
> az.
> --
> Aaron Ardiri
> Lecturer http://www.hig.se/~ardiri/
> University-College i G�vle mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> SE 801 76 G�vle SWEDEN
> Tel: +46 26 64 87 38 Fax: +46 26 64 87 88
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>
