Re: Thunderclock - Y2K Compatible

[shack@southwind.net (Randy Shackelford)]

In article <38897A20.58561CA3@plane.nl>, Pim Blokland  <nipp@plane.nl> wrote:
>"Stephen B. Field" wrote:
>> 
>> Is the Thunderclock capable of working in the Year 2000?   I was thinking on
>> bidding on one.
>
>The Thunderclock does not have a century, so: yes, it works. Provided
>you access it in the right way, it is perfectly usable in the year 00.
>You have to keep updating the operating system every few years though,
>because you can't get the year out of it. The OS reads month, day and
>weekday and must make a guess of what the year is.

Righto, that's where the seven year table that needs updated comes from
Thunderclocks can't tell you the year so the ProDOS kernel calculates
it based on the day of the week using the table. But some Apple haters
like good ol' Nathan Mates claimed it was because Apple wanted people
to quit using Apple IIs.

I haven't taken an opportunity for a while to say how glad I am that he's 
gone. It's been a year and a half and I'm still giddy with glee.

>I've read somewhere that you can SET the year on a Thunderclock, but
>not READ it; it is a write-only register. But I wonder if that is true
>- would the designers  really have been that stupid?

Guess so. Not storing the year is stupid enough, so why not add on more.

BTW I have Applied Ingenuity's Applied Time II clock card in my //e. It
emulates a Thunderclock, but has its own clock modes and includes the year
which is good until 2039. I'd say it was the best built clock card out there
but odds are not too many were made.
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