Re: GS Hard Drive Defrag Program

[mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon)]

Roy Miller asked:

>"Michael J. Mahon" wrote:
>
<snip>
>> Apple had "standardized" a 2-digit "windowed" year representation,
>> in which years from 40..99 meant 1940..1999 and years from
>> 00..39 meant 2000..2039.  All the Y2K patches for the A2 that
>> I know of tried to follow that standard.
>
>Is there any way to utilize 40...77 as 2040...2077? After all at that
>point the Apple II will be 100 years old.
>How many Apple IIs were using data from 1940 in a Visicalc spreadsheet?

The window could be shifted just about anywhere, but it would
still be non-Apple-standard, with the consequent cross-platform
problems.

If you use birthdates in a spreadsheet, you may find even 1940
to be somewhat confining.  (The solution, typically, is to abandon
"date" types, and use separate year fields, at some cost in sheet
redesign.)

Having a representation that works for another forty or so years
seems quite appropriate.  By 2029, assuming anyone still cares,
we can reassess the situation and possibly move the window,
since the relevance of 1940-ish dates will have decreased by
then.  ;-(


-michael

 Email:  mjmahon@aol.com
 Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/