Information and Tools for Specific Products
In doing assessments (to determine the size of the problem), remediation (fixing code), and testing, you may find some of the following tools and information for specific products to be helpful.
Microsoft Applications
Because the campus is a heavy user of Microsoft products, this initial section discusses where to get information and tools regarding Microsoft products.
Access - information is available from Microsoft on version 2.0 and version 8.0 (Access 97. Independent discussions are offered in the paper Year 2000 Issues in Microsoft Access and the technical notes Year 2000 issues in PC Database packages. Also, see the discussion of Year 2000 data problems with Internet Explorer 3 and Windows NT 4.
Access - tools include:
TOTAL ACCESS INSPECTOR 2000, from FMS. As described here; this product, "in addition to detecting specific date or Year 2000 issues, also provides the information necessary to fix problems and find issues that cannot be detected automatically. For instance, Field Cross-Reference reports are available so that once a date or date related field is detected, its use by other objects is known. Data analysis reports quickly reveal invalid date data or fields that contain date or year information. The Form Control Analysis report shows for each form, every one of its controls and its date related settings to make sure properties are set consistently. Finally, Macro and Module printouts simplify the work required to examine code." Available for Access 2.0 and Access 97, the cost is $499 per version or $799 for both versions.
ACC-FIX 2000, from Serious Software, automates the process of correcting (instead of simply reporting on) Y2K problems. The price of $349 (plus shipping) per fully licensed single-workstation CD-ROM includes versions for both Access 95 and Access 97.
OnMark 2000 Workbench for Access, from Viasoft, is a complete, interactive workbench that performs a comprehensive analysis of Access applications, identifying potential date problems and other inconsistencies that may produce errors. A fully-functional evaluation copy is available for downloading.
ADO - information is available from Microsoft on version 2.0.
Foxpro - information is available from Microsoft on FoxPro Professional 2.6 and on Visual FoxPro Professional 5.0.
Visual Basic - information is available from Microsoft on preparing VB applications for the year 2000. Microsoft has also put online a sample chapter, on Year 2000 issues, from the book "Advanced Microsoft Visual Basic". An extensive discussion of the Year 2000 Problem as it affects VB is available here.
Since VB uses standard Microsoft automation libraries, that should also be checked. Finally, see the discussion of a Year 2000 data problems with Internet Explorer 3 and Windows NT 4.
Visual Basic - Tools:
Visual DateScope, from Class Solutions Ltd, a Visual Basic tool-set, including a date scanning application and Year 2000 function library.
OnMark 2000 Workbench for Visual Basic, from Viasoft, runs under Windows 95 and Windows NT. It supports Visual Basic releases 3.0, 4.0 and 5.0 (except for user control and property page in 5.0), uses Microsoft Project 4.1 or MS Project 98 (for online project planning, estimation and tracking), and is ODBC-compliant. It parses and analyzes application source code to extract key lexical and semantic information. This impact assessment builds a source code repository on any ODBC-compliant database with information about lines of code, lines of impacted code, number of date variables, program complexity and audit tracking. A fully-functional evaluation copy is available for downloading.
Non-Microsoft Applications
AS/400 applications: consider purchasing a book, Y2K Survival Kit for
AS/400 Programmers, by Ted Holt, $59.00, ISBN 158347000X. Several videos on Y2K remediation for AS/400 systems are also available.
Clipper - a source code scanner is available, including a free evaluation version.
DB2 for Unix - see the IBM Year 2000 site.
Filemaker - information: For the most part, Filmaker database software is Y2K compliant. However, version 2.1 and version 3.0 have some issues, depending on how some fields are defined and use. For details, see here.
Java - some suggestions are available here. Some problems are described here. Some examples of bad Java code (for web pages) are listed here.
Lotus Notes: OnMark 2000 Workbench for Lotus Notes (3.x and 4.x) , from
Viasoft, is said to perform a comprehensive analysis of databases and design
templates, identifying potential date problems and other inconsistencies
that may produce errors. It reports on date dependencies, external
dependencies (e.g. ODBC lookups) and code constructions that present risk
(e.g., converting a date to text or constructing a date from variables
representing year, month and day).
Oracle - more recent versions of this database are generally compliant. However, there is a danger that the default date is set to interpret all two-digit dates as dates from the 20th century. A recent book, Year 2000 Solutions for Oracle(R) Applications & Databases, by Kirk Paul Lafler, $79.95, ISBN 1928678009, may be helpful. Also, possible problems with Oracle are discussed on the web page describing UNRAVEL 2000 for Oracle, a suite of seven tools to identify
potential date related problems in Oracle Forms, PL/SQL, and Reports. A
free trial offer of this suite is available. And, of course, the Oracle Year 2000 web pages should be checked.
Paradox - this product is now owned by Corel. The current version is Paradox 8. Corel will support Paradox version 7.0 and later, and provides a web page for assistance .
Powerbuilder - information: See the vendor site.
PowerBuilder - tools:
OnMark 2000 Workbench for PowerBuilder, from Viasoft, runs under Windows 95 and Windows.
XBase (FoxPro, FoxBASE, dBASE, and Clipper) applications:
According to the vendor, DateHound quickly and thoroughly scans program and data files for
potential Y2K problems, and it scans PRGs, DBFs, reports, labels, screens,
menus, and class libraries. The vendor also says that it produces highly
detailed reports in a variety of formats, including text and HTML. A free
demo download is available. The cost is approximately $200.
Communications Horizons' Y2KFox is said to be an instant Y2K fix for legacy
xBase applications, including FoxPro, Clipper, or dBase applications.
Source code is not required, because the Y2KFox approach combines a
memory-resident utility with a FoxPro Library that implements a century
rollover technique with a user-defined threshold year.
Return to A Systematic Approach to Y2K Application Recoding
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