Hi Ian,

On 23-Nov-99, Ian Moote wrote to MURRAY LESSER:


 ML>>> All the versions of DOS and Windows that I've tested are safe
 ML>>> for Y2K, and all of my documentation implicitely indicates that
 ML>>> _all_ versions of DOS are safe for Y2K.

 ML>> You must have tested on new hardware.  DOS and the DOS-based
 ML>> versions of Windows use the BIOS driver for the real-time clock,
 ML>> and old hardware has a bug in its RTC BIOS.

But Murray, the fact that the old BIOSs can have what you (and I)
consider a bug affecting Y2K does not make DOS itself have a Y2K bug.

 IM> Perhaps I should clarify my question here. [:) I'm far less
 IM> concerned with RTC roll-over as I am with whether the O/S will be
 IM> able to accurately report dates beyond 31 December 1999. [:) Do
 IM> you know of _any_ versions of OS/2 which will have trouble doing
 IM> that?

I believe the base OS is OK in all versions > OS/2 2.0.

 ML>> Without an add-on software fix for the machine's BIOS, the
 ML>> century value for the RTC will not turn over on 1/1/2000. [...]

Murray, that's just not true. All that is needed it to update the RTC
after the century has changed from within an application. The change
then sticks, and is what I've done for my commercial code that runs
7*24.

 ML>> It is only when you shut down and reboot that you will find out
 ML>> whether or not you have the BIOS bug.

 IM> I've no wish to begin a thread/discussion or to argue with you,
 IM> but just for the sake of expressing a point of view, I disagree
 IM> with the point of view of there being a "bug" in so-called "older
 IM> hardware". My point of view here is that since the limitations of
 IM> the RTC were well-known at the time it was implemented into the
 IM> AT, and that since this limitation was well-known to those who
 IM> implemented the BIOS, and that since both the RTC and the BIOS are
 IM> both performing exactly the way that they are intended and
 IM> expected to, that there is no "bug".

 IM> JMO. [:)

I consider it a bug that, knowing the RTC hardware itself did not
update the century byte, the early BIOS writers did not include code
to do it. However it's all history now...

 ML>> The basic OS/2 operating system (at least since Warp 3) takes
 ML>> care of "buggy BIOS" machines, and the OS/2 system clock (which
 ML>> is the RTC, not a separate set of counters) will not die until
 ML>> the end of 2079 ("end of time" for OS/2 as presently written).

 IM> Is this true of _all_ versions of OS/2, that they all use the RTC
 IM> for for their TOD clock? (Is the 2079 a C thing?)

Afaiaa it is true of all versions since OS/2 2.0.
The 2079 is an OS/2 thing. Years >= 80 are considered to be 19xx,
years < 80 are considered to be 20xx. The C thing hits in 2038, when
for most compilers the time counter goes negative (Watcom C uses an
unsigned counter which is good to 2106).

George

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