by Harmon Jolley
posted November 26, 2009
) Hand-out from the BASIC computer programming class that started it all for me. Click to enlarge. |
Computers, though, are fairly dumb pieces of metal and plastic. They require humans to program them to make accurate calculations. This was a fact that became very clear to the public as the year 2000 approached, now ten years ago. Is it possible that it’s been that long since the Y2K panic escalated? Let’s see… I’ll stop and think and calculate the interval … yes, that’s correct.
HOW I CAME TO BE A PART OF FIXING THE Y2K BUG
Leaving high school, my career plan was to enter the field of journalism. I’ll always remember getting to take a tour of the Chattanooga Times with my English teacher, Linda Hawkins, who had worked at the newspaper.
In college, I realized that I needed to build knowledge of a particular aspect of the news. The mid-1970’s were a time when the economy was always in the headlines, with rising unemployment and inflation. So, I decided to major in Economics, thinking that I could specialize in reporting business news.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga acquired an HP3000 computer during my years there. I took an elective course in programming in the BASIC language taught by Dr. Michael Biderman of the Psychology department. I remember the challenge of writing what would seem to be a simple program – to calculate the correct denominations of coins to be given as change from a vending machine.
The course in BASIC was followed by classes in COBOL and Assembler. While I did complete my degree in Economics, the exposure to computer programming moved my career plans in a different direction. As 1999 turned into the year 2000, I completed my twentieth year in computer programming, data processing, management information systems, or information technology – depending on what it was called at the time.
HOW THE Y2K BUG ORIGINATED
It was no hoax. There was a Y2K bug, but it didn’t originate from the short-sightedness of computer programmers. Instead, the problem was set up in the limited technology of early computing devices.
Tabulating machines had existed for many years prior to electronic computers. Herman Hollerith (1860 – 1929) was a statistician who developed a tabulating machine that processed data that had been keypunched onto cards. His company evolved into the International Business Machines firm we know as IBM.
Companies once had large staffs of keypunch operators who would transcribe corporate data onto cards. Because the cards were limited to eighty characters of data, calendar dates were often abbreviated. Thus, a person born on December 31, 1909 would usually have their date of birth keyed as 091231. The format was year-month-day in order to help the computer to determine whether a date was before or after another date. The first two digits of the year were usually dropped, unless the range of the date spanned one hundred years. This was part of the beginning of the Y2K bug.
The other part of the Y2K bug originated in computers themselves, which had limited data storage and memory in their early years. Retired data processor Ron Bourn recalled, “Back in the good old days of the late 60’s when I started in Data Processing (not quite as sexy as the new title of Information Technology) we had enough trouble getting our programs down in size so that our whopping 512K new IBM 360/50 processor at Pratt and Whitney could compile it and run it in less than 24 hours.”
As the twentieth century drew to a close, the representation of the date of birth in my example became a problem. By December 31, 2009, would the person known to the computer as having a date of birth 091231 going to be a newborn, or a centenarian?
HOW THE Y2K BUG WAS ADDRESSED
As urgency of addressing the problem increased, I would often hear co-workers state their hopes of either retiring or being in a different line of work before the Y2K bug wreaked havoc. Most stayed the course.
Some organizations dealt with the Y2K bug during routine system maintenance. Many, however, committed large amounts of funding to a system-wide remediation effort. It was among the most tedious program code review imaginable. Each date had to be inspected, and often expanded from six to eight digits so that the full year could be stored.
Editing the programs, though, was only part of the battle. The bigger challenge lay in planning and executing the integrated testing, and documenting the results. There was also a need for careful coordination between companies that exchanged data with each other.
As companies realized that more people were needed to address Y2K, they began looking around the world for information technology help. A legacy of the Y2K remediation effort is that the world is now more connected through technology and communication networks.
NEW YEAR’S EVE, 1999
By December 31, 1999, both the information technology community and the public at large were watching the clock with anxiety.
Our staff had completed all of the required coding, testing, and documenting of the changes for Y2K. The testing had included a simulated resetting of the internal computer clock. We each had a list of all of the company’s computer applications, and contact information for each. Were we ready? The hour drew near that would say yea or nay.
The programming teams were on-site to observe the behavior of their systems at the appointed hour. We took breaks by going to a conference room that had CNN on a large screen. It was memorable to see the dawning of the year 2000 celebrated in each time zone around the world.
With few exceptions, our systems passed their real-world test at midnight. Though some of the public had hunkered down in shelters with portable generators, converted their bank account into cash, and had full shelves of food, the Y2K bug had been vanquished.
After leaving work, I stopped by our church, where the rest of the family was still celebrating Y2K as part of a youth group party. I had a feeling of pride that the Information Technology workers around the globe had banded together to prevent what could have been chaos. It was our finest hour – 20000101 at 00:00:00.0.
If you have memories of dealing with the Y2K bug, please send me an e-mail at jolleyh@bellsouth.net.
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