"Paul D. Christensen - PC Enterprises" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Does anyone know if HP has plans for upgrading MM/PM for the year 2000?

How about the "alphabetic" work-around for dates that HP has implemented
(at least for MM)?  Does this satisfy your requirements?  If you want more
info on this, I'll be happy to steer you in the right direction.


>I am a contractor at a Major Manufacuring Monster (intials pun intended)
>and I am unable to get a straight answer out of anyone.

No-one seems to give a straight answer nowadays...


>No one that I know of is even starting on anything for the year 2000.
>
>The assumption is simply that all new systems will be somehow magically
>written by then for NT and/or UNIX and that the HP3000 won't exist.

Surely.  But (just in case the unthinkable happens and magical schedules
for NT slip), it might be wise to do something ASAP.


>This makes for a frustating working environment.  I want to see them get
>started on some sort of a plan.  I also contract for a small mfg firm, and
>we are starting this month on converting all dates to 8 characters.
>This company has around 420 COBOL programs, so that means I need to
>convert 11 programs a month for the next 36 months.  And I only work for
>them on a part-time basis, so that's why we decided that we had better
>get started.

Now that you mention COBOL, I would like to mention that I have been
contacted by several people along these lines.  One company, in particular,
is furiously developing a patch program that (theoretically) will go around
your OBJECT programs ("executables", "binaries", whatever you want to call
them) and patch most routine things automatically.  I am no COBOL expert,
but I understand there are some limiting difficulties with some COBOL COMP
(or whatever) types.  This is an interesting approach for those hapless
souls who don't have access to source code.  There might be other solutions
that will massage SOURCE code.  I am getting more information on this as I
write this note.  As I learn more, I'll keep everyone posted.  It would be
great to hear about as many alternatives as possible, from as many people
as possible.


>I think that hourly contract rates should start to rise as we get close
>to the year 2000 and some of these companies with no plans start to wake up.

You must have studied Economics, because you understand the concepts of
marginal cost and marginal value :-)


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