Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1998 11:04:45 -0400 From: Tim Vanderhoek <ac199@hwcn.org> To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>, Matthew Hunt <mph@pobox.com>, Ivan Brawley <brawley@camtech.com.au>, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: 64-bit time_t Message-ID: <19980815110445.A2355@zappo> In-Reply-To: <19980815120445.C21662@lemis.com>; from Greg Lehey on Sat, Aug 15, 1998 at 12:04:45PM %2B0930 References: <199808131721.KAA00864@antipodes.cdrom.com> <199808140040.KAA14156@mad.ct> <19980814000605.A25012@astro.psu.edu> <19980814135919.U1921@freebie.lemis.com> <19980814114525.B4001@zappo> <19980815120445.C21662@lemis.com>
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On Sat, Aug 15, 1998 at 12:04:45PM +0930, Greg Lehey wrote: > > One problem UNIX has is that there is no standardized format for > representing times. There is no sensible reason to use one format for > representing system times, one (inconvenient) format for representing > times more accurately (down to only 1 microsecond, when it could have > been down to a nanosecond), and one format broken down into > representations of the individual units of time. None are of any use > when I want to know "How many seconds has it been since my grandfather > was born?". time_t *will* answer the question "How many seconds has Why the hell would you want to know how many seconds it has been since your grandfather was born? The whole idea of measuring the current time in seconds (or useconds, or nanoseconds) since some epoch is bogus. The current time is constantly being corrected and changed. Simply because the current time "is" 57382023 seconds since the epoch does not mean that 57382023 seconds have passed since the epoch. If some physicist performing an experiment needs to record time passed, he needs his own clock to track seconds passed, but comparing seconds (or any time) passed to the current time as recorded by some central clock isn't necessarily meaningful. If there are two physicists, perhaps they will synchronize their counting at some given current time, but after that, they're on their own. Goes double for anyone here who is trying to figure-out how many seconds they have been alive. A 64bit time_t will only _perpetuate_ the error of time_t in the first place. Propose a solution (preferably before A.D. 2039) and let those who need to count time passed do so in with whatever units and counters are appropriate for their needs. -- This .sig is not innovative, witty, or profund. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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