formmail.pl and non-Y2K cgi scripts

[Jerry Kuntz]

I've been playing with adding some email reference forms to some library web
pages, and discovered that one variation of a fairly common form:
#FormMail                        Version 1.6
#Copyright 1995-1997 Matt Wright mattw at worldwidemart.com
# Created 06/09/95                Last Modified 05/02/97
#Matt's Script Archive, Inc.:    http://www.worldwidemart.com/scripts/
has a line in it that presents a Y2K problem:
$year += 1900;

Someone who knows far more about perl than I do tells me that this
particular line isn't a showstopper, since this variable effects the date
printed in the message body, whereas the message header uses a date defined
by the mail server (which is presumably Y2K compliant.) His recommended
action was just to change 1900 to 2000 after 1/1/2000.
I did want to mention this on the list, however, just as a heads up to
others using this particular script; and as a precautionary warning that
some people (like me!) might have overlooked date variables in perl/cgi
scripts as potential Y2K problems.
Jerry Kuntz
Ramapo Catskill Library System
jkuntz at rcls.org