2nd chapter

-and perhaps reduce the amount of keystrokes necessary in order to enter the year to date-most
IS groups have allocated two digits to represent the year. For example, "1996" is stored as "96"

in data files and "2000" will be stored as "00." These two-digit dates will be on millions of files
used as input for millions of applications. This two digit date affects data manipulation,
primarily subtractions and comparisons. (Jager, p. 1) For instance, I was born in 1957. If I ask
the computer to calculate how old I am today, it subtracts 57 from 96 and announces that I'm 39.
So far so good. In the year 2000 however, the computer will subtract 57 from 00 and say that I
am -57 years old. This error will affect any calculation that produces or uses time spans, such as
an interest calculation. Banker's beware!!!
Bringing the problem closer to the home-front, let's examine how the CAPS system is
going to be affected. As CAPS is a multifaceted system, I will focus on one area in particular,
ISIS. ISIS (Integrated Student Information System) has the ability to admit students, register
them, bill them, and maintain an academic history of each student (grades, transcripts, transfer
information, etc.) inside of one system. This student information system has hundreds and
hundreds of references to dates within it's OS. This is a COBOL system accessing a ADABAS
database. ADABAS is the file and file access method used by ISIS to store student records on
and retrieve them from. (Shufelt, p.1) ADABAS has a set of rules for setting up keys to specify
which record to access and what type of action (read, write, delete) is to be performed. The
dates will have to have centuries appended to them in order to remain correct. Their (CAPS)
"fix" is to change the code in the Procedure Division (using 30 as the cutoff >30 century = "19"
<30 century = "20"). In other words, if the year in question is greater than 30 (>30) then it can
be assumed that you are referring to a year in the 20th century and a "19" will be moved to the
century field. If the year is less than 30 (<30) then it will move a "20" to the century field. If absolutely necessary, ISIS will add a field and a superdescriptor index in order to keep record retrieval in the order that the program code expects. The current compiler at CAPS will not work beyond the year 2000 and will have to be replaced. The "temporary fix" (Kludge) just discussed (<30 or >30) will allow ISIS to operate until the year 2030, when they hope to have
replaced the current system by then.