Back in the late 1800s, scientists had an idea to create machines that could think quicker and make human lives' easier. These machines were created to do simple arithmetic problems. While creating these, programmers main concern was to save as much memory as possible so they reduced the year from four digits to two digits. Since then computer technology has advanced tremendously and now computers can think and understand humans. However, computer programmers never thought of problems created by previous programmers. Now as the millenium approaches there is a huge problem that has been created. When programmers in the late 1800's saved memory by using the two digit year they never thought about what would happen a hundred years later (de Jager, Bergeon, 1999, p 1). The Year 2000 bug or Y2K bug is a problem that will affect every computer created before 1997 or has programs on it that were created before 1997 (p 29).
Français : Bug de l'an 2000 : la pendule indique ...
Programmers Search Relations Network Graph
International Programmers DayComputers and programs created before 1997 think that 01/01/00 is January 1, 1900, and all information created is lost because it thinks the information is ninety years in the future (p 1). As the year 2000 approaches, programmers have realized the problem that has been created and do not know if they have the time, money, or manpower (de Jager, Bergeon, 1999, p 11, 8; Mandel, Coy, Judge, 1998, p 97). Also, computer programmers and engineers have to decide whether or not to use a logical approach, a physical approach, or neither to solve the problem (p 120, 61). Then, if they do fix the problem they have to fix every computer in the world and test them to make sure that they will pass the millenium (Mandel, Coy, Judge, 1998, p 97).
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English: TI-990 programmers panel (Dave Pitts)