On Wed, 22 Apr 2020 10:34:34 -0500, Tom Marchant wrote: >On Wed, 22 Apr 2020 13:43:03 +0800, Timothy Sipples wrote: > >>The Social Security Administration could easily give 20 years of advance > Something similar should have been done for Y2K to avoid the last-minute scramble.
>>warning before expanding their number space if they wish. They've got >>several options before that far distant future, such as: >> >>1. Allowing capital letters except those that can be confused with numeric >>digits. > >If they are going to give warning so that computer systems can be changed, >this is not an interim option. Many years ago, I worked as an application >programmer on systems where SSN was stored in packed decimal. I'm sure >that others did the same, or stored them in a fullword. > >These would have to be changed if letters are allowed. > Two separate issues are coding and data storage space. -- gil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
