If, for sake of argument, there were need for a programmer draft, I'm not sure how one would work. I suppose the government would scan tax returns for everyone who said they were a "programmer". But as Americans may not speak Italian, Visual Basic programmers may not program in COBOL, etc.
Even if the government can isolate all the COBOL programmers, they certainly can't force programmers from one Y2K compliant corporation to go help out another. About the best they could do is force these people to work on government systems.
If we follow this (absurd) logic to the end, then what? Set up a few mainframes at the Watergate hotel and relocate programmers there for some round the clock remediation sessions? Perhaps, instead, they'll all be e-mailed 10,000 lines of code on a floppy disk to fix using a text editor?! And what about embedded systems? No way, Jos‚.
I suppose the government could pull the old patriotic "do it for your country" heartstrings, but the logistics are just too mind-boggling to conceive. After all, we have an entire Y2K sector just sitting there waiting for the flood gates to open with signs saying, for example, "hire me; I'm fully automated".
Sorry, as much of a Y2K believer as there is, I still can't fathom a programmer draft. But, then again, I never expected the return of Disco. Silly me.
- Jeff |
