Y2K bug - MSIE
TLZ
Internet Explorer Y2K Glitch Emerges
By Nate Mook, eFront
January 1st, 2000, 10:43 PM
Internet Explorer users worldwide may come across the year 3900 as they
browse the Web today. This is due to a flaw in the way IE renders
JavaScript.
The getYear() query normally returns a two-digit year, however upon reaching
the year 2000, Internet Explorer is returning four digits. Microsoft has
claimed this to be a problem in the implementation of JavaScript itself,
independent of IE. However, BetaNews tested the same code under recent
Netscape, Opera, and Mozilla browsers without an erred result.
Microsoft suggests the use of getFullYear() instead, which will turn all
dates into four digits. Although, this requires changes in the physical
code, placing blame on the HTML programmer rather than Internet Explorer.
The main issue is that many Web sites compute the date by adding 1900 to the
current year in the two-digit format, resulting in a four-digit display.
Upon reaching 2000 however, getYear() returns 2000 instead of 100, making
the current year 3900. While this may not be a problem for smaller Web
sites, it will take time and money for large corporations to update
thousands of pages with new code.
Microsoft has not yet said whether they will patch the bug, although with
over 75% marketshare according to StatMarket.com, much of the Internet
community is potentially affected. Network Associates, makers of the popular
McAfee anti-virus suite, experienced the problem earlier this morning when
reporting virus pattern dates, while Netscape's Netcenter reported today's
news as year 3900.
Art Sackett
"TLZ" <tmlo...@wantreeDOTcom.au> wrote:
> Reported at
http://betanews.efront.com/article.php3?sid=story386ec94458d2c
>
> Internet Explorer Y2K Glitch Emerges
> By Nate Mook, eFront
> January 1st, 2000, 10:43 PM
<snip>
> The getYear() query normally returns a two-digit year, however upon
reaching
> the year 2000, Internet Explorer is returning four digits. Microsoft
has
> claimed this to be a problem in the implementation of JavaScript
itself,
> independent of IE. However...
It's really just the normal carelessness that they've always exhibited.
> While this may not be a problem for smaller Web
> sites, it will take time and money for large corporations to update
> thousands of pages with new code.
While this might sound true, it's really not.
As a guy who is ultimately responsible for hundreds of thousands of
pages on many sites, I took the easy way out: wrote a simple perl script
to do the job for me. It took about a half-hour to write it, and a few
minutes per site to upload and run it. No matter if the site has a few
tens of pages or a few tens of thousands, the time it takes to invoke
the thing from the command line is the same. End to end, every site in
the ASPWD universe was changed in less than two hours.
That wouldn't break anyone's budget. Time for the reporters to get more
clueful. m$ won't, but no one really expects them to, do they?
--
-- Art Sackett
Art Sackett Professional Web Design
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.