Re: Assembler Macros

Andy Wood wrote:
> Steve Myers <noone@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> 
> .. . .
> 
>> It was more like the mid-80s, if I remember correctly.  In any 
>> event, PL/I had 10+ years to fix their code.
> 
> Too long back for me to remember accurately, about 1987 would have
> been my guess.
> 
> I still say it was a mistake. They should have added another option to
> get a four digit year instead (as was later done anyway with
> LINKAGE=SYSTEM). 
> 
> PL/I had a long time to fix it - except they did not know it was
> broken! That only became evident when people started to run Y2K tests.
> The problem was compounded by the fact that the PL/I DATE code was in
> a "resident" module ( IBMBJDTA ) which was linked with countless user
> programs all over the world. So even when PL/I got to fix the code,
> users were still exposed to the problem until they re-linked their
> programs.

Aha! That's why it never bit us. Because of a low-impact (but deadly, 
for our particular shop) bug in PLRSHR, I spent a wild weekend in the 
early 90s relinking every PL/I program we had. (I had an 
ultra-high-speed delinker with a special PL/I-library-stripper feature 
to help me.)

-- 
John W. Kennedy
"The pathetic hope that the White House will turn a Caligula into a 
Marcus Aurelius is as naïve as the fear that ultimate power inevitably 
corrupts."
   -- James D. Barber (1930-2004)