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Q: I am concerned about the impact on Aladdin software, its functionality,
and stability with regards to the year 2000 issue. What's the
story? (If you find that this report does not answer your needs, please
notify us.) Last modified 09/30/97.
A: Aladdin has two categories of software in regards to the Year
2000 problem, 'not sensitive' and 'compliant.'
Not Sensitive is for software that doesn't use date information in any way.
This software will obviously not have a problem in the year 2000.
Compliant means that the software will handle dates on either side of the
1/1/2000 boundary correctly and unambiguously in its internal
calculations, data storage formats and user interface.
Detail
Data storage - All Aladdin software uses and stores dates in formats
that do not have a Year 2000 problem. The Windows/DOS versions
of our software use the time_t format from the ANSI standard,
this returns an unsigned 4 byte integer representing the number
of seconds since midnight 1/1/1900 and handles dates up to February
5, 2036. Our Macintosh software uses the Mac OS function GetDateTime.
This returns an unsigned 4 byte integer representing the number
of seconds since midnight 1/1/1904, this representation handles
dates up to February 6, 2040.
Calculations - Very few of our products use dates in calculations,
and when they do, they calculate elapsed time by subtracting the
seconds-based format, not on a DD/MM/YY representation. Therefore,
Aladdin's products have no problem comparing dates that are in
different centuries. Also, the system service routines on both
the Mac OS and Windows recognize that 2000 is a leap year.
User Interface - Very few Aladdin products ask a user to enter
a date; however, some do display dates, e.g. file creation and
modification dates. No conflict will occur in these situations
because dates are entered and displayed in the format specified
by the user in the "Regional Settings" control panel (on Windows)
or the "Date & Time" control panel (on Mac).
Previous Versions
Aladdin Systems always recommends using the current version of
our software. We have qualified the current versions of our software
for Year 2000 compliance. We cannot warrant that all previous
versions of our software are Year 2000 compliant.
Dates within Compression Formats
Aladdin's compression and archive software deals with the following
formats. At this time, we are not aware that any of these formats
store dates in ways that cause Year 2000 problems, but with the
exception of Aladdin's proprietary format "StuffIt", we do not
warrant this to be true.
AppleSingle, BinHex4, btoa/atob, CompactPro, DeArc, MacBinary,
PKG Expand, StuffIt, tar, Text, Unix Compress, UnPack, UnZip,
UUCode.
Current Shipping Products
| Product |
Version |
Status |
notes |
| Aladdin Desktop Tools |
1.0.3 |
not sensitive |
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| CyberFinder |
2.1.1 |
not sensitive |
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| DropStuff/Expander |
4.0.x |
not sensitive |
|
| Expander/Windows |
1.0 |
not sensitive |
3 |
| MagicMenu |
4.0.3 |
compliant |
1 |
| InstallerMaker |
4.0 |
compliant |
4 |
| Spring Cleaning |
1.0.1 |
not sensitive |
3, 4 |
| StuffIt Deluxe |
4.0 |
not sensitive |
3 |
| StuffIt Lite |
3.6 |
not sensitive |
4 |
| StuffIt Browser |
1.0.1 |
not sensitive |
3 |
| StuffIt Engine SDK |
4.0v3 |
not sensitive |
3 |
| Stuffit SpaceSaver |
4.0.1 |
not sensitive |
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| True Finder Integration |
1.0 |
not sensitive |
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| FlashBack |
1.0 |
compliant |
2 |
| ShrinkWrap |
3.0 |
compliant |
2 |
| SITcomm |
1.0.1 |
compliant |
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Footnotes
1. We suggest turning on the "show century" option in the MacOS's
"Date & Time" control panel (System 7.5 and later) in order to
prevent ambiguity in the user interface.
2. Not shipping yet.
3. Saves and restores files creation and modification dates.
4. Displays files creation and modification dates.
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Contacting Aladdin's Technical Support Department
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| Aladdin Systems, Inc. |
email: |
support@aladdinsys.com |
| 165 Westridge Dr. |
FTP site: |
ftp.aladdinsys.com |
| Watsonville, CA 95076 |
CompuServe Forum: |
Go: ALADDIN |
| Phone: 408-761-6200 |
Fax: 408-761-6206 |
Technical support is available by telephone Monday through Thursday,
8am - 5pm Pacific Time and Friday, 8am - 3pm. The Technical Support
Department is closed Friday from 3pm to 5pm for a weekly meeting.
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