AS/400 Y2K "Silver Bullet"
Gary Guthrie
Yeah, right!
By the way, the "Silver Bullet" is NOT the only tool that fixes the
database. BYPASS2000, for one, does it. For identifying affected areas
I would pit BYPASS2000 against any other tool.
BYPASS2000 does, however, use a windowing feature in the programs if you
allow BYPASS2000 to modify your programs. I'm not a fan of windowing
techniques.
Gary Guthrie
HankHeath
I just received this press release. Thought I'd share it with the group
for
comments. I have no financial interest in this company, just passing the
information along.
Hank Heath
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
For Additional Information
Contact: Gary Catrambone
Voice: 888-484-4672
Fax: 609-589-3996
E-mail: gcatr...@info-techinc.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MILLENNIUM SILVER BULLET for the AS/400
Info Tech, Inc. of New Jersey has developed a `silver bullet' tool
that solves the Year 2000 problem for users of the IBM AS/400
mid-range computer. The Millennium Silver Bullet for the AS/400
(MSB/400O) converts 100% of the date fields in an AS/400 database and
brings them up to `Year 2000 Compliance.' MSB/400 accomplishes this
by expanding the date fields to include the applicable century. The
tool then searches the application programs and produces a
line-by-line report identifying every line of programming code to be
examined.
CORRECTS THE PROBLEM - NOT JUST A "FIX"
By actually adding the applicable century to the data, MSB/400
differs
significantly from currently available industry solutions in that it
does not require any `leave behind' windowing devices and requires no
additional software purchases. As the only tool that corrects every
date field and reports every line of code that refers to those
fields,
MSB/400 also streamlines the post-correction programming effort. This
could potentially save companies tens or hundreds of thousands of
dollars in programmer costs.
POWERFUL & VERSATILE TOOL FOR THE YEAR 2000 AND BEYOND
MSB/400 converts all native AS/400 databases and is equally effective
on applications written in either COBOL or RPG. MSB/400 easily
converts Alpha, Packed, signed numeric, two, four or six digit date
fields. These date fields can be in any order (i.e., YYMMDD, etc.)
and
can remain in the original order or can be changed to YYMMDD order.
- MORE -
MSB/400
Page 2
"The MSB/400 tool is revolutionary," says Info Tech President Daniel
Harrow, "because it corrects 100% of the date fields." Currently
available Year 2000 tools for the AS/400 are `band-aid' programs
which
never actually place the correct century in the database, according
to
Harrow. Their `data windowing' techniques use some programming
sleight-of-hand to adjust for the new century, Harrow explained, but
they never actually correct the underlying problem.
The MSB/400 includes additional tools, in the AMMO BOXO, which
perform tasks that previously could only be accomplished manually.
From within the MSB/400 AMMO BOX, the user can add a new field to the
database, change an existing field description or restore DDS for a
file where source has been lost.
Info Tech, Inc. Vice President Gary Catrambone announced that
everyone
who has an AS/400 and has been waiting for a comprehensive, `silver
bullet' solution to the Year 2000 problem need only wait until July
1,
1997. "We are currently in beta testing and will be ready for product
release by then," said Catrambone.
###
Chris Young
A cheaper and more controlled way of doing this is to use a tool called
"DateFind" which will identify the dates in your DB2/400 database but not
fix them - you do this manually so as to keep control of what is going on.
At only 50 pounds sterling (or equivalent) it has to be worth getting just
to give you an idea of the scale of fixing required and it's available NOW
!!
Download a trial copy from http://freespace.virgin.net/c.young/y2k400.html