Re: [nukkad] y2k???

[Harshal Chhaya <hchhaya@epsilon.pair.com>]

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This is more of a programmer error than a Y2K bug. The localtime()
function in Perl returns the year as the number of years from 1900.
Thus last year it returned 99 and this year it returns 100.
This is clearly stated in the documentation but most people new
to Perl ignore it. Plus a lot of the scripts written a couple of years
back ignored this. The authors apparently  thought that since the
year (98 or 99) matched the then-current year, things were fine.

A lot of these early scripts were available for download and a lot
of people started using them. In Jan and Feb 2000, there were many, many
sites that were displaying the wrong year - either 100 or 19100 (in cases
where the script just appended '19' to the year). To see one in June 2000
is a bit surprising. But I guess the people behind the site are not
maintaining it actively.

The message boards on Mumbai Central (http://www.mumbai-central.com/mboards/)
had this bug and I spent a couple of hours on Jan 4 fixing the scripts
that manage them.

Regards,
- 'shal
harshal@mumbai-central.com

P.S. If anyone is actively monitoring the site mentioned, I
bet they would be surprised at the sudden burst of visitors due
to this message.


According to Shyamala Sathiaseelan:
>   Can we call this y2k problem????
> 
> http://mindit.netmind.com/go/1/20859359/6735100/184/1
> 
> -Shyamala


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