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“Bodsworth [1] tells me a story he heard earlier in his career about a nameless London bank that was confronted with a problem when the UK switched to a decimal currency in 1971. It had a #ComputerProgram that carried out various financial #calculations using the UK’s pre-decimal currency. But someone had lost the source code, so there was no way to modify the software to run its calculations on the new decimal currency.
Rather than rewriting the software from scratch at great cost, the bank simply created a bit of #code that converted amounts in decimal pounds and pence into pre-decimal pounds, shillings and pence. The converted totals could then be put into the old program to run the financial calculations. Finally, another bit of code converted the results of those calculations from pre-decimal back to decimal values.”
The critical computer systems still relying on decades-old code
#software / #archaeology <https://archive.md/m9Sem> / <https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26535330-100-the-critical-computer-systems-still-relying-on-decades-old-code/>
[1] Vincent Bodsworth, a trustee of the LEO Computers Society.
Greg Cocks 
