How come this problem never showed up before. Example. Russia during the cold war has KGB programmers put in worng information.Would'nt this be just about the same.

-- Steve M (ltyw90a@prodigy.com), July 15, 1998

Answers

Actually, it did. In the 1960s, the Navy had a program that used a *one* digit date field. In 1970, the date rolled over and the program died.

-- Larry Kollar (lekollar@nyx.net), July 15, 1998.

Yes indeed, it has happened before. As a new COBOL programmer working for GE in Daytona Beach, Florida in the late 60's, I remember being given an assignment to convert a 80 column card file to tape in order to eliminate several 5 digit date fields which only allowed one digit for the year!

-- Frank G. Whittemore (103366.760@compuserve.com), July 19, 1998.