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Did missing/corrupt dates in COBOL default to 1875-05-20?
There is a claim circulating, e.g. here on Mastodon: [...] in COBOL, if a date is missing [or "corrupt"] the program defaults to 1875 [...] The claim is sometimes "enhanced" by
An art mostly lost today, where programmers use the most capable type for everything (like float to store bool). In turn a not filled date - like when the birth day is unknown, will be empty - which by this logic will output 1875 - at least by reports not taking care of this exception. People with no real knowledge poke around with the year, find a fact that seems important and build a story from there on.
Or read this on Hacker News
