Year 2000 check for your PCs

[Anna Schwind]

On Mon, 7 Apr 1997, Thomas Dowling wrote:

> Leap years are those years whose numbers are divisible by 4, unless they're
> also divisible by a hundred, unless unless they're also also divisible by
> 400.  In other words, the years 1996, 1948, and 1904 were leap years
> (duh!); the years 1800, 1900, and 2100 are not leap years; but the years
> 1600 and 2000 are leap years.  It's quite conceivable that a PC clock might
> only be programmed through the first two rules, incorrectly making 2000 a
> non-leap year.

Actually, this will be the case for most PCs and for a bunch of apps, as 
well.  Apparently many many programmers had no idea that the year 2000 
was a leap year (who can blame them?  Most were not around in 1600, the 
last time a year ending in 00 was a leap year).  So, in essence, the year 
2000 problem is several problems all rolled up into one.  One is the two 
digit date code which we have heard so much about, and another is not 
accounting for the 2000 leap year.  (There's a third thing, but I can't 
remember right now what it is).

So it appears that Ernest Perez' hardware clock has both problems.  Not 
only will it not account for the leap year in 2000, it only allows a two 
digit datecode so that in 2000, it will probably think it is 1900.  

A simple PC year 2000 test is to set your CMOS clock to about 3 minutes 
before Jan 1, 2000 and turn it off.  In about five minutes turn on your 
PC and see what it has done.  You may find some of your favorite 
wordprocessing applications no longer work.

With your morning shot of Year 2000 cheer,
Anna
--
Anna Schwind			"My watch just stopped..."
(anna at merlin.deltast.edu)		Mulder in X-Files	
Systems Librarian	       
Delta State University				    
Cleveland, MS