Hi Marc,
On Sun, 27 Jun 1999 17:23:05 PST8PDT, Marc D. Williams wrote:
> Lotus 1-2-3 (even my old DeskMate version) and dBase both handle
> dates well into the next century as far as the data is concerned.
TFYI. I used to have those old apps, but their floppies were
damaged by fungi.
So, even most MS-DOS abandonware already Y2K compliant <g>.
Seems that Y2K issues really hyped for commercial purposes recently.
"Your OS and apps are not compliant, you should upgrade them". "Your
current PC is not compliant," (even though actually only the CMOS RTC)
"you could really use a" (whole) "new one". Hey, we even have some
companies that make a fortune selling Y2K BIOS patches here. Guess
this situation is the same everywhere? Hint.. hint... ;-)
> Whether or not a word processor is compliant might not be an issue
Just a minor issue... Print merge. Some word processor might allows
date function in print merge templates, could be a problem if you
have a bunch of them.
> I am a bit concerned with this old Tandy though. It has MS-DOS 5.0.
> It doesn't use a CMOS but uses a separate clock chip (SmartWatch)
> which the Y2K testing utilities don't take into account.
Does MS-DOS see it? Perhaps you could try these simple Y2K tests:
Power off test:
---------------
1. From DOS prompt, set DOS date and time to 12/31/1999, 23:59.
MS-DOS will write these values to the Real Time Clock
(RTC) hardware as well.
2. Power off, wait for more than one minute.
When RTC's 2 digit year wraps to 00, at the same time it's 2
digit century should be incremented to 20 automatically (most
older CMOS RTCs has a flaw that they won't increment this).
3. Power on, allow the system to boot.
MS-DOS will read the RTC to set it's internal date and
time. If the RTC date is out of range (01/01/1900),
DOS date will be set to default (usually 01/04/1980).
4. Check the DOS date, it should be 01/01/2000.
If not, then your RTC hardware has century flaw.
Consider to get yourself a copy of Y2K BIOS patch (FREE)
from the net.
Power on test:
--------------
1. From DOS prompt, set DOS date and time to 12/31/1999, 23:59
2. Wait for more than one minute, check that the DOS date has
changed to 01/01/2000.
3. Hit ctrl+alt+del or reset button, allow the system to boot.
4. Check the DOS date, it should be still 01/01/2000.
Off course if Tandy uses a special utility to access the SmartWatch,
then you have to use it as well to set date and time (step 1) and
restore them after booting (step 3).
BTW, surely there should be a reason why Tandy using a propetiary
RTC, right? Could it be possible that they already figure out the
century flaw a long time ago? :-)
--Eko
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