Re: NTLK Pocket Quicken - help

From: Bill Davis (newton@ecity.net)
Date: Thu Jan 06 2000 - 02:10:00 EST


On 1/3/00 8:10 AM, Chris Browder [mailto:jb1463@earthlink.net] wrote:

>I have Quicken 5...and 'scuse me if I sound cynical....but seeing as how
>the Mac has a 4 digit Date system, I don't see how ANY app can't be
>compliant.

Not cynical, just misinformed.

The answer is simple -- just because the OS has such a date system
doesn't mean Intuit used it...or that they properly handled 4 digit dates
in calculations even if they did. Parts of Quicken were probably ported
from other platforms and/or they use their own date system internally.
Quicken CERTAINLY does some calculations with dates.
 
>AOL said that their older AOL apps were not Y2K compliant -
>even the Mac versions, bull.

Not bull. Since they give away the AOL software anyway, what possible
reason would they have to lie? It certainly doesn't profit them as they
don't sell you an upgrade. Saying there were Y2K problems and fixing
them sound like being responsible in this case.

Besides, the problem probably wasn't on the Mac...it was probably on
their mainframes and when the software changed there it affected the Mac
and PC client software. Or perhaps some software written for the PC
client and ported to Mac improperly and not using the MacOS date system.

>I don't buy not being Y2K compliant on a Mac at all..

Then you'd be wrong, and it'll come back to haunt you.

I didn't worry about it excessibly, but I paid attention and upgraded
when the vendors said that the product wasn't compliant. In EVERY case
so far it was a free upgrade or patch. So there's no case that can be
made that they weren't addressing a legitimate problem in their software.

>I'm still running my 1982 software applications fine and my 1986 version of
PageMaker still
functions fine....

Considering the Mac came out in 1984, not 1982, I think you must be
mistaken! :-)

And PageMaker uses dates HOW? It's a page layout program. Maybe a
date/time stamp on a page...but it does not do any date CALCULATIONS that
I can think of, which is what the Y2K problem is all about.

>sorry but I was worried about Y2K on the PeeCee side, but when it comes to a
Mac, they've >>
>been compliant

Mostly, sure. The OS is compliant and provides compliant routines
(although there were some known bugs in the Date and Time Control panel
that I think haven't been fixed yet but won't surface for a decade or
so.) Most programs use them. BUT NOT ALL. A few apps including some
major ones, one by an Apple subsidiary, aren't, or had areas with
problems:

Filemaker before 3.0. Quicken before '98. And MS Internet Explorer
4.5's JavaScript or Netscape's JavaScript. Not sure which, but I got
DIFFERENT answers from the Same JavaScript date calculation on 1/1/2000
on the main Info-Newt page.

Excel from Office 98 has problems - Microsoft just released a patch, and
I think there was another one earlier for otehr issues.

There are a few others. See the Y2K report on www.macintouch.com.
www.macfixit probably has one too, and I'd bet there's info on Apple's
site. It's not a large report, but there were a few apps with problems.

 - Bill

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