Re: Y2K Prodos or GS/OS Patch

[dlyons@netcom.com (David A. Lyons)]

In article <20000129231502.22407.00000302@ng-cv1.aol.com>,
TEXAS II - AppleWorks <a2mg@aol.comNomail> wrote:
>> Since 1991, ProDOS dates have been well defined, and they cover 1940 to 2039.
>
>Unfortunately, most Apple II software was written before 1991, and was never
>changed to comply with the new rules. Even those written later didn't get the
>message. Did you think that all pre-1991 programs would somehow get updated? 

Nope, we were sure that most software would NOT be updated, and we judged
that there was much more software which -displayed- dates than software that
-compared- dates, and that the majority of date-display routines did not
work past 99 (showing things like "1-Jan-100" or "1-Jan-:0").

We did believe that developrs who were still active would read the
technotes.  There weren't that many of them.

>I have never seen a directory listing of files which differentiated between
>pre-40 and post-40 years.

"Make it so."  It's not too late to revise or patch whatever needs it.

I've done the coding and testing for Davex 1.3, but haven't done the
release notes & the upload yet.  (In Davex, it's not just the [optionally]
sorted directory listings that are affected, it's also the "modchk" and
update commands.)

>...but nobody, except possibly GS/OS apps, implemented the 39/40
>instruction in a directory listing of files.

For GS/OS apps, there is no significance to 39/40...it's the FST's
job to interpret the year on disk, and return the date in the parameter
block, where they are defined as 0..255 = 1900 to 2155.  There is still
an opportunity to display the date wrong.

--
Dave Lyons
Mr Tangent
<http://members.aol.com/davelyons>