Aaron Ardiri write:
> the designers probably wanted to use as little space as possible.
> i am sure my Palm III will be of no use in 2000. 2Mb is not enough,
> and i am not going to pay for the memory upgrade - so i will
> buy another one.
>
> i am sure that when 3COM releases a new Palm Pilot in 2031, it
> will have an updated ROM so it will be able to handle the dates
> outside the current limitations.
You're missing the point. Sure in 2031 we'll be using the Palm MCXVII,
and obviously by then there will be a new ROM and a new DateType (named
DateTypeWithForethought) which can handle dates beyond 2031. But at the
time that switchover happens, any application which uses DateType data in
its database will be in trouble. Not only will a new version of the
application be required, requiring at least a simple recompilation with
the new data type but at most lots more, but also each app will have to
bloated by code which somehow recognizes an older database and updates it
(a non-trivial task) to the new format. In the worst case this is an
unmitigated disaster and one which could be (and probably was) easily
foreseen. And, to pick a very minor point with Keith, while this problem
does affect Mac and Windows too, neither of those operating systems was
developed at a time when Y2K was a household word. PalmOS was.
Steve Patt
President, Stevens Creek Software
http://www.stevenscreek.com/pilot
The home of...
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