In the March 1998 issue, we ran an article about a clever solution to the Year 2000 problem for FoxPro 2.x applications. Christof Lange's code takes advantage of a command few of us ever noticed to set up a rollover feature like the one in Visual FoxPro 5.0 (and 6.0) to let users continue to enter two digits for the year. Clearly, this is a hot topic in the FoxPro community -- we've already sold out the Professional Resource CD for that issue, as well as the magazine. (If you still need a copy of Christof's code, you can find an updated version on this issue's Professional Resource CD.)

Christof's solution is best suited to applications built using the FoxPro 2.x Power Tools, since it can be automated in those situations. It also requires that the application's source code be available.

I have a client who has a number of FoxPro 2.0 and FoxBASE+ applications, none of them built with the Power Tools. These applications were custom written for this company to do exactly what it needs. In at least a couple of cases, there's still nothing available off-the-shelf to do the job. All the applications have Y2K issues.

It would be a lot of work, but I could apply Christof's solution to the FoxPro 2.0 applications. I could even move the FoxBASE+ applications into FoxPro 2.0. But I didn't write these applications and in this case, I subscribe to the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy.

Through one of those wonderful coincidences -- literally days before the client and I realized there was even a problem -- I received a message from Neil Weicher of Communication Horizons (the folks who make NetLib). He'd been following various Y2K discussions in CompuServe's FoxUser forum and had come up with an innovative solution.

Y2KFix is a TSR that you load prior to running your application and unload when you're done. Like Christof's solution, it lets you specify a rollover date. Any years entered that are less than the rollover are transformed to 21st century dates, while years greater than the rollover stay in the 20th century. Unlike Christof's solution, in most cases Y2KFix requires no code changes.

Y2KFix is available in both DOS and Windows versions. Weicher is even working on FoxBASE+ support in the DOS version, although that will require using LOAD and CALL and therefore, may need source code. (I say "may" because someone has suggested it might be possible to do the LOAD and CALL in a new program that then calls the original EXE.) For those of us supporting legacy applications that still do what the client needs, the ability to keep them in FoxBase+ is a real bonus. For more information about Y2KFix, you can contact Communication Horizons at http://www.netlib.com/.

Several companies have products that help you find your Y2K problems and get you started on solving them. FOXPRO ADVISOR has carried ads for Scanalyzer 2000 from Hendela System Consultants (http://www.scany2k.com/) for some time. I also heard recently from Clyde Getty of Getty Information Systems about his FoxPro Project Inspector (http://www.gettysystems.com/), which appears to perform a similar task.

Beyond these old applications, I'm being careful to see that anything new I write doesn't have Y2K problems. Visual FoxPro 6.0 makes this easier than ever with its new SET STRICTDATE command, which slaps me on the wrist for any use of ambiguous dates. Look for an upcoming article on how to make sure your Visual FoxPro applications don't run into Year 2000 problems.

ADVISOR WORKSHOP on Visual FoxPro 6.0

Visual FoxPro 6.0 will be here before you know it. If you attended Visual FoxPro DevCon, you were lucky enough to get the first public look at this new and more powerful version of Visual FoxPro. Now you can attend a two-day developers workshop completely focused on the new features.

The things you can do with Visual FoxPro 6.0 are amazing, but you need to learn how to put them to work. That's the purpose of the ADVISOR WORKSHOP on Visual FoxPro 6.0, October 5-6 at the Pointe Hilton Resort at Squaw Peak in Phoenix, Arizona.

Presented by Visual FoxPro DevCon speakers, book authors and experts Rod Paddock and John Petersen, you can attend ten sessions packed with professional guidance on how to migrate to and master Visual FoxPro 6.0. Topics include: New Language and IDE Features in Visual FoxPro, Understanding and Using Project Hooks, OLE Drag-and-Drop, Modifying the Visual FoxPro Wizards and Builders, Using ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) with Visual FoxPro, and more.

For complete information and registration details, be sure to monitor http://www.advisor.com/DevCon. You can register online: call 800-368-3204 (in the U.S. and Canada), (203)268-3204, fax (203)261-3884, or e-mail FoxProDevCon@advisor.com.