Data Archival (OT Long)

From: Jerome Fine <jhfine_at_idirect.com>
Date: Sun Dec 10 22:33:22 2000

>Sellam Ismail wrote:

> >On Sat, 9 Dec 2000, Jerome Fine wrote:
> > Since the old version from 1985 is a hobby version and free to use
> > under certain restricted conditions, I want to make a Y2K version
> > available for hobby users and it will not be that much more effort
> > to bring it to a Y10K level. The only real question is the calendar
> > which will likely have a leap year or two omitted in the next 8000 years.
> > But which one is still in question.
> Why stop at 10K? Why not make it YnK?

Jerome Fine replies:

In RT-11, dates are displayed as 10-Dec-2000.

The reason that I stopped at Y10K is because I have such a hard time
deciding what format to use for the year. Up to 9999, 4 digits for the
year seems quite acceptable and that is also the current standard. But
up to year 99999, 5 digits seems too much. So, I suspect that I will
use year 99,999 instead. However, I then have a problem with years
that are both greater and less than 10,000 within a directory that has
many files and dates in a column. I realize that you mean your reply as
a joke, but I can see a very serious side to the question.

And as far as making the actual data for the date YnK, that I will be
able to do since there will be 23 bits for the year - up to year 8,000,000
if a user wants to make the trivial changes to allow more digits and
the calendar that is used by the program (which is our present ordinary
Common Era or Gregorian calendar) is actually still in use and meaningful.
So a complete Y100K is entirely possible and years up to 999,999 could
be handled properly.

So long as the current Common Era calendar is still in use with only
a leap year variation (omitted from the current ones or added back to
the ones contained in the Julian calendar), there will not be a problem.

The only question that I still have is the format used to display the date
when the year is greater than 9999. Any suggestions?

Sincerely yours,

Jerome Fine
Received on Sun Dec 10 2000 - 22:33:22 GMT