Re: Apple // System Disk 3.4?

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

E.A.G.L.E Librarian asked:

>Adalbert Goertz (goertz@cyberspace.org) wrote:
>: re:
>:      As far as I know, the latest ProDOS-8 is v2.0.3, released 6 May
>: 1993. It
>: needs at least 128k.
>[snip]
>
>--> I'm curious - has anyone `updated' the ProDOS kernel (or whatever
>    the proper nomenclature is) so that the seven year table in it now
>    covers the new millenium (ie: allows year dates of 2000 and higher)?

The table has seven bytes (one for each day of the week), but, since
it must encode at least one leap year and, for some year ranges, two,
it can only encode 5 or 6 consecutive years.

Each entry is simply a byte which equals the year of the century,
so 2000 = 0, etc.

The issue is whether the applications and tools you want to use
will correctly interpret year numbers this low.  (And, of course, most
programs that sort file lists by date will sort the 21st century dates
low rather than high.)

>    My current one still taps-out at 1995, though I can force 1999.  I'd
>    just like to use a `newer' ProDOS.  Perhaps there's online steps to
>    updating one's own ProDOS year-spans?  Mayhaps with some editor such
>    as is available in C2P?  Just wonderin' . . . 

The last couple of system disks had an Applesoft utility for modifying
the ProDOS clock driver's table.  Since I use my own driver, I don't
know for sure whether that utility will work past 1999.  Given when it
was written, I'd expect it to work, though.

-michael

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