Samuel W. Heywood wrote:
>
> On 1999-09-09 [EMAIL PROTECTED] said:
>
> Bernie wrote:
>
> >I noticed that no problems have been reported due to the date
> >990909 (which was claimed to create problems - the explanation why
> >it should is still highly unlogical) in the majority of the world
> >(I haven't seen that nothing has happened in N/S-America yet, and
> >no reports what so ever from the rest of the world).
>
> <snip>
>
> There is nothing illogical in the explanation as to why the date,
> Sept 9th, 1999 was likely to have resulted in problems in many
> industries that rely on computers.
>
> Back in the good old days of DOS version 1.0 and CPM, many programs
> were written in which forms were processed under an infinite loop
> routine which provided for a keyboard input of "9999" as the
> "stop program" command, being the only valid input for exiting the
> loop and ending the program. A computer operator running such a
> program would encounter a prompt stating "Enter the date". To stop
> the program and exit, the operator would simply enter "9999". A
> program properly written to work in this fashion would always
> execute just fine and never produce any problems except in the
> special case in which the operator intended to enter "9999" as a
> valid date, rather than as a "stop program" command. During the
> era in which the programs were written, everybody "assumed" (and you
> know what this means) that the programs would have been superseded
> and replaced by new programs prior to September 9th, 1999.
>
> Does anything more need to be said about the error of those that
> "assume"?
>
> Sam Heywood
>
Sam,
You are the ONLY person that I have heard explain the "9999".
I have programed in assembly language for 10 +/- years. Yesterday
I kept hearing about the possible "9999" bug. And with my basic
knowledge of assembler and how PCs work, I could only surmise that
these folks were carrying on about a bunch of foolishness. Now,
I know that they were.
Jim Webster
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