Computer bugs in the year 2000

[Gadfly]

--
>>       I have a friend that raised an interesting question that I
>> immediately tried to prove wrong.  He is a programmer and has this
>> notion that when we reach the year 2000, computers will not accept
>> the new date.  Will the computers assume that it is 1900, or will
>> it even cause a problem?...

>> Spencer L. Bolles

Your friend is probably aluding to the leap-century correction
in the Gregorian Calendar.  Most date programs do not make any
subtler correxions than leap-year (and some don't even do that).
There is no Feb 29 in a century year unless that year is divisible
by 400.  Thus, 1900 was not a leap year (look it up), but 2000
will be.  So, all un-leap-century-corrected programs will be
safe until 2100, and most folks will slide blissfully into the
next millenium never even stopping to think about their calendar's
fine tuning.
-- 
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