Reverse engineering tools in the reporting and analysis of the Year 2000 date problem

Abstract

With the Year 2000 approaching, there is a massive amount of code review and modification going on within industry. One aspect of this millennium problem is computer systems that have used a two digit rendering of the year when interpreting dates. Since the Year 2000 is a fixed deadline that cannot be moved, time is of the essence for businesses in determining if their software has any date logic within them that is incorrect. This means that any utilities that can be implemented to reduce the amount of time software maintainers spend on comprehension and modification of programs would be of benefit. Since reverse engineering techniques can be used to identify components and interrelationships within software, as well as build up high level abstractions from low level code details, it is possible to determine through practical example whether reverse engineering tools and techniques could serve a role in identifying computer software date code problems for the Year 2000.