Y2K

[i-y2k-mod@phil.gn.apc.org]

The message below was sent to Roberto Verzola privately, so we've
omitted the sender's email address. He subsequently agreed however
to include his name:

Mr. Verzola,

Your note on the evils of "gain maximization" was forwarded to me.  I am
not interested in joining a large listserve, so I'll reply directly to
you.

I have been in the computer industry since the 50s and managed major
software development.  From my perspective your note seems to be an
exercise of ideology over reality.

First, few of the later-day Y2K experts understand that the problem
results from a "birth defect" in the computer industry.  The most
important commercial and governmental data in the 40s and 50s was
managed on punched cards with 80 characters of storage.  With this
extremely limited memory for a commercial or governmental transactions,
it would have been foolish to use a 4 digit year field.  Further, it was
impossible to anticipate the consequences of stored program computers.

In the mid 50s, when computers with magnetic tape became practical,
institutions most valuable data was moved from cards to tape and the
same processing algorithims as used in cards were turned into programs.
The "birth defect" moved forward with no awareness of a problem looming
40 years ahead - hardly greedy gain maximizatiion.  By the way, early
computers did not even have clocks.

Later modern computers with on-line disks greatly expanded the variety
of programs that used this most essential, historic data.  Naturally
these new programs used the data as it existed with 2 digit year
fields.  Further, until the 70s there was no notion of forward
compatibility between computer generations.  None of these "blinded"
designers  and their greedy employers thought their programs would have
anything to do with the world 30 years later.

By the time there was some awareness of the Y2K issue in the late 70s,
the birth defect was pervasive.  Any new systems (PCs and minicomputers)
that connected to these systems shared this inhereted fault to some
degree and here we are.

I managed dozens of programming projects and never had a programmer
advocate 2 digit year fields for efficiency.  They usually complained
about having to maintain compatibility with customers' legacy data.
Further, my company also sold hardware and would have been delighted if
customers would have needed more memory and storage for the larger date
fields.

Your polemic is totally off base.

Why don't you focus on the most destructive "gain maximizing" force -
myopic politicians with a decision horizion of the next election.  At
least in the US, they are doing the worst job of facing the Y2K problem.

Glenn Bacon