jim rozen wrote:
My understanding from talking to the folks who did a lot of this
is that you are correct. They were just trying to save two digits
in the data, multiplied by a lot of data files.

Yes, but THEY DID IT STUPIDLY!!!! In the same space (2 bytes) it takes
to store the two digits, they should have stored 16 bits worth of
information, which buys you 2^16=64K years of dates. Anybody who
seriously considered storing the 4 numeric digits as 4 bytes should be
shot, even posthumously.

Everybody needs a "THINK!" sign right in front of their workspace,
especially now.

Pete

'One of the processes that concerns me is what I call the "Karma Vertigo
Effect." We have an extraordinary amount of what you could call karma in
this generation, because this generation is creating the computer
network and the infrastructure of computer software that will be running
for a thousand years. I call it the Karma Vertigo Effect because when
you realize how much karma we have in this generation, you get vertigo!'

Jaron Lanier (Virtual Reality pioneer)