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To: zeugma
> If it can’t handle dates 10,000 years into the future, it should be a non-starter.

Hell yes, although to be honest I'd probably settle for 1000 years. But clearly, 100 years is not enough -- witness the Unix Epoch at ~68 years. Some of our technology will survive over 100 years.

I hope to live long enough to see Unix 32-bit rollover (I'll be 86). May it be the last of the big rollovers.

31 posted on 02/14/2019 12:04:53 PM PST by dayglored ("Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government."`)
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To: dayglored

If I had my way noone would use less than 56-bit date fields, and preferrably 64-bits. That gives you as much precision as anyone would want, and even lets you use a bit or 2 for CRC or other purposes, yet it’s not going to expire in anyone’s lifetime. The current Unix time is a 32-bit number, so a change to 56-bits would be 16,777,216 times as long. A 64-bit number is 4,294,967,296 times as long as can be stored in 32-bits. I figure those wanting nanosecond accuracy and maximum longevity should specify a 128-bit timestamp, which would encompass the expected lifespan of the universe.


34 posted on 02/14/2019 1:27:06 PM PST by zeugma (Power without accountability is fertilizer for tyranny.)
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