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HP launched three hours of advice and demonstrations into HP sales offices around North America with a June 17 Technology Close Up satellite broadcast. Hosted by George Stachnik, the program featured up-to-date advice on getting applications ready, as well as demonstrations from HP 3000 suppliers Adager, Diamond Optimum Systems, Cognos and Productive Software Systems.

HP is making the broadcast available on videotape. Customers can call 800.224.HP3K to order the “Cure2000 for the HP 3000” tape along with a workbook, or they can order it over the Internet. Overseas customers can fax a request to 612.430.3388.

HP notified viewers that it would ship a patch for MPE/iX 5.5 by the end of 1997 that will apply Year 2000 fixes to the HP 3000 operating system. Earlier this year, HP said it planned to wait until it shipped the 6.0 release of MPE/iX to offer the enhancements. HP’s Kriss Rant said in the broadcast that plans for the patch materialized because of customer demand.

Rant recently added another notice about this patch, which HP is designating as Express 4 -- HP will support the Express 4 version of MPE/iX 5.5 through the end of the Year 2000. The support life for the release will therefore extend more than four years, the longest official support for any MPE/iX release to date.

Rant said HP was extending the support life of the release “to protect customers’ year 2000 project efforts.” HP also noted that it will not make versions of MPE/iX prior to 5.5 Year 2000 ready.

Customers using Classic HP 3000s with MPE/V learned that their systems have Year 2000 safe releases in 3P and 40 versions of MPE/V. However, HP noted it’s pulling all of this non-RISC HP 3000 hardware off official support in September, 1998. Self-maintainers and those with third-party support agreements can use the 3P and 40 releases beyond the Year 2000. (See the related MPE/V story in this issue.)

HP also released a list of third-party application providers it knows to be ready for Year 2000: Amisys, SGA, MorTech, Acxicom/BSA, Summit, VLTS, Neasl-Weber Intl. (NWI), CompuServe/Collier-Jackson, PSSI, Advance Laboratory Systems, First Data Corp., SD&G Healthcare Systems and American Physicians Service Group.

Two of HP’s own applications for the 3000 also got notice. Patches for Year 2000 dates in HP OpenDeskManager will be available in 1998, while MM/3000 customers already have patches available to make their applications handle next century dates. Additional information on other applications’ readiness was promised for the Cure2000 HP Web site.

HP also discussed its own CALENDAR intrinsic for MPE/iX, the software that handles dates for the operating system. The new HPCALENDAR intrinsic, to be released in the 5.5 Express 4 patch, handles dates beyond the Year 2000. Other variables and commands to be enhanced in the release include a new CI command for SETCLOCK, the SHOWVAR command that will support the HPYYYY variable and HPSPLITYEAR, a variable which determines where your date split occurs to help establish if a two-digit year like 47 means 1947 or 2047.

In addition to HPCALENDAR, other new intrinsics are HPDATECONVERT, HPDATEFORMAT, HPDATEDIFF, HPDATEOFFSET, HPFMTCALENDAR and HPDATEVALIDATE. HP says the new intrinsics can be broadly categorized as those that:

• Convert dates from one supported format to another (HPDATECONVERT);
• Convert the supported format dates to the display formats desired by the user (HPDATEFORMAT);
• Determine the number of days that separate two given dates (HPDATEDIFF);
• Add and subtract an offset (days) to or from the given date (HPDATEOFFSET);
• Validate the given date for conformance to a supported date format (HPDATEVALIDATE).
• Support the new 32-bit HPCALENDAR format (HPCALENDAR, HPFMTCALENDAR).

A prerelease version of the new intrinsics, as well as documentation on their behavior, is available at HP’s CSY Jazz Web site. Rant said HP is planning to expand the use of Jazz as a vehicle for distributing software for beta testing purposes. Although software distributed through this channel is not officially supported by the Response Center, a direct link is usually provided to a lab engineer to report problems and give feedback during the testing period. Official support for the new intrinsics will begin with Express 4's December 1997 ship date.

HP also reported that the 3000 can’t be used beyond 2027 with any planned version of MPE/iX. A customer call during the Q&A portion of the program noted that HP 3000s cannot be booted with a system date set beyond 2027. What’s more, tests of HP 3000s for years beyond 2027 – and the capabilities of the new intrinsics which support years beyond that date – can’t take place without third-party utilities. Many programs that make up the HP 3000 operating system rely on 16-bit calendar information, which won’t support any date beyond the year 2027.

While the 2027 problem will probably outlive many of this generation’s managers and programmers, it’s become an issue for some HP 3000 customers who want to fix date problems once and for all this time around. Some companies have been instructed by auditors to accept no more software with date limitations of any kind, while others do business with dates well into the next century in the insurance and lending industries.

Third-party help

HP’s Rant reported a workaround for the 2027 testing issue, a pair of third-party tools just released for HP 3000s. Allegro Consulting and SolutionSoft both offered date simulators that let managers adjust system dates to test applications without altering the system date that production applications are using.

The majority of the three-hour telecast covered how these kinds of third-party utilities can be used to manage Year 2000 projects for HP 3000s. Adager’s Ken Paul and Alfredo Rego demonstrated how Adager (208.726.9100) examines and changes dates in IMAGE/SQL databases. Adager is already working on Year 2000 projects at multiple sites. Bob Desklin of Cognos demonstrated the Power2000 workbench, which helps PowerHouse sites update their applications and find Year 2000 issues inside code. Power2000 will be available on general release of PowerHouse 8, scheduled for this fall.

Ygor Yasno of Diamond Optimum Systems demonstrated his company’s D-Day 2000 suite. The product creates an inventory control data base for HP 3000 software to identify the use of date fields and get cost estimates. Roger Olsen of Productive Software Systems showed how the ROBOT/3000 software assesses Year 2000 impact on HP 3000 applications and solves problems. Both products approach the project from a documentation heritage and are currently shipping.

In a development unrelated to the TV broadcast, Distribution Resources Company (DRC, 303.889.4500) is providing a suite of Year 2000 solutions, including 2000-compliant applications and a survival kit for its HP 3000 customers. The free survival kit and information is published on DRC’s Web site. The kit includes frequently asked questions relating to Year 2000 compliance, a series of product-specific recommended strategies and details relating to each DRC application. The entire package is also provided in a binder form with room to incorporate a customer’s specific and proprietary data.

DRC’s own HP 3000 applications are in the process of becoming Year 2000 compliant. System for Distributors, Inventory Forecasting and Customer Service Workstation are ready, with other DRC products will follow early next year.