- Two Digits for a Date
- Author Unknown (sung to the tune of "Gilligans Island", more or less)
Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
Of the doom that is our fate,
That started when programmers used
Two digits for a date.
Two digits for a date.
Main memory was smaller then;
Hard disks were smaller, too.
"Four digits are extravagant,
So let's get by with two.
So let's get by with two."
"This works through nineteen-ninety-nine,"
The programmers did say,
"Unless we rewrite before that,
It all will go away.
It all will go away."
But Management had not a clue:
"It works fine now, you bet!
A rewrite is a great expense;
We won't do it just yet.
We won't do it just yet."
Now, when two thousand rolls around,
It all goes straight to hell,
For zeros less than ninety-nine,
As anyone can tell.
As anyone can tell.
The mail won't bring your pension check,
It won't be sent to you
When you're no longer sixty-eight,
But minus thirty-two.
But minus thirty-two.
The problems we're about to face
Are frightening, for sure.
And reading every line of codes
The only certain cure.
The only certain cure.
[key change, big finish]
There's not much time,
There's too much code.
(And COBOL-coders, few.)
When the century is finished with,
We may be finished, too.
We may be finished, too.
Eight thousand years from now I hope
That things weren't left too late,
And people aren't then lamenting
Four digits for a date.
Four digits for a date.
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