The AMS products (AMSView, AMSLite, AMSRetrieval and AMSImage) have been
designed, developed and tested to be Year 2000 "compliant" in all respects. The
AMS Products will continue to function properly as of January 1, 2000 and all subsequent
years. Additionally, the date related functions in AMS Programs are capable of storing,
searching and handling dates before and after the year 2000.
This document addresses many of the frequently asked questions about year 2000
concerns. If you require any additional information on this subject, please contact AMS
Technical Services (support@ams-imaging.com.au).
The Year 2000 problem stems from when computer systems were first being deployed in
businesses during the 1960’s and 1970’s when computer memory was extremely
expensive. Programmers strived to reduce the size of computer memory required to execute
their programs. One of the standard techniques was to only use two digits to store a date
(making the assumption that the century would always be "19"). This reduced the
amount of storage required for the date field by one half. At the time, programmers
anticipated that these systems would be replaced long before the end of the century. An
additional factor is that this technique was considered "good programming
practice" and continued for some time.
The problem for software that was designed this way is that when the year 2000 arrives,
many programs will assume it is actually 1900 rather than 2000. This can obviously affect
any calculations and program flow that is date based. As a simple example, a credit card
billing program would not send out statements for January 1, 2000, because the computer
thinks it is January 1, 1900 and has 100 years to process those bills!
AMS Programs (AMSx) are fully compliant with the Year 2000. Microsoft has established
several "tests" for Year 2000 compliance. This information is available on
Microsoft’s Web Site at www.microsoft.com/ithome.
We meet all of these Year 2000 tests including:
- AMSx stores and calculates dates consistent with a 4-digit format throughout the date
range supported by the product. AMSx supports year dates from –9999 to 9999.
- When allowing 2-digit date input, AMSx converts these dates to a 4-digit format for
storage and calculation.
- AMSx correctly executes leap year calculations, including the Year 2000.
- AMSx does not use any special values or keys in its date fields. This prevents
misinterpretation of dates as a special value or key data.
- AMSx will function into the 21st century, to at least the year 2035. The Year
2035 is Microsoft’s test date, we know of no reason while AMSx will not work well
beyond 2035.
AMSLite and AMSView versions 2.0 through 4.50 do not provide date range searching and
are unaffected by the Year 2000. The only possible date used in these programs is an
expiry date for the software. This has always been expressed as a four digit field. Full
versions of these programs do not have expiry dates and there are no date functions called
during the execution of the program. AMSImage is a Raster Image editing program and is
similar to AMSView in that there are no date functions used. AMSRetrieval is custom
written to a user’s specification. Any date related information is stored as a text
field and is searched as text. AMSRetrieval may provide date related capabilities and is
fully Year 2000 compliant as discussed above.
2-Digit Year Entry.
AMSRetrieval can support 2-digit year entry and uses the Implied Century Rule developed
by Microsoft for determining whether a date is part of the 20th or 21st
century. Currently years "30" or greater are considered part of the 20th
century (19xx), while years less than 30 are considered part of the 21st
century (20xx). In either case, the date is stored as a full four digit number. Dates can
always be entered as 4 digit numbers eliminating the need to apply the Implied Century
Rule logic.
Please note that this statement applies only to the AMS product line and integration
programming as shipped or delivered by AMS. We can not certify compliance for any API
integration, custom programming or modifications utilizing AMS technology but developed by
third parties. Please contact the organization that provides the customizations or
modifications for information regarding their Year 2000 compliance.
