9fans archive / 1999 / 01 / 14 /    prev next

From: Russ Cox rsc@pla...
Subject: [9fans] Re: Some plan9 y2k problems
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1999 10:33:36 -0500


  Unless someone changes time's type to "unsigned long" or "long long"
  before 2038...

I'm guessing that by 2038, time()'s type will be at least 64 bits.
I think we can scrounge up a factor of two in the next 40 years.
Just a hunch.

  It's not a bug, it's a feature!  Because of the year%400 rule, the year
  2000 *is* a leap year.  Therefore, between March 1, 1900 and Feb. 28,
  2100, the year%4 rule alone is valid.  UNIX's time span is well within
  this range. 

No doubt this will go down in history as one
of the earliest justifications of the infamous y21c bug.
In 100 years, we will look back in disgust at the "foolish
Unix programmers" who thought that their code would certainly
be retired in the next 100 years.  And why stop there?  At this
rate we should all be preparing for the y10k bug, which certainly
will be much more disruptive than whatever happens in 11½ months.

Russ