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Mark: Re: V2000
My initial comments on Vertex 2000 were made with no documentation available, other than what was on the web at the time. V2K is based on a technique that I refer to as a "techie trick". I gave my opinion of how such a technique would work, based on 20+ years of developing software myself, and cast doubt on the ability for any development group to bring such a tool to the market in a short period of time.
Many of my 'predictions' were right on the button (hooray for me!). Others missed the mark (oops!). My main error in guessing was in the way V2K dynamically intercepts execution. At the time I made my 'guess', the information that V2K worked only on COBOL II (the most recent compiler version) wasn't available. That information would have led me to a different conclusion. V2K's intercept method is much cleaner than I had guessed.
The demo that was given to me crashed because of dial-up problems, not because of a glitch in their software. If I gave the wrong impression earlier, please accept my apology.
Bob Bemer's parting comment was that V2K is a 'stop-gap' (his words) measure until the client can migrate to the 'proper' way to fix the Y2K. He readily admits that the 'proper solution' is to expand dates to 4 digits. The appeal of V2K is that it can help sites get over the hump (12/31/99), and is relatively easy to implement (Bob's assessment, not mine).
There is a performance penalty for using V2K. I have not had any input from anyone assessing how large that penalty might be. According to Bob, the tool 'learns' as it processes, so the longer a given application executes, the faster it gets. Perhaps. Count me as skeptical on that one.
I had not referred to any of the ongoing discussions I've had with Bob because they were primarily technical in nature, with just a touch of TPI related stuff in them. You wouldn't believe some of the discussions we techies get into. (On second thought, maybe you would.)
Re: other investments. I retired at 48 because of having been involved with startup software companies, not because of my investing acumen. I don't short stocks. Yet. Towards the end of 1999, I might change that philosophy.
Regards,
TED |
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