Date disaster in 30 year's time?
in [UK Mac]
|
Prev: iTunes - sync Gmail contacts ?
Next: Bookmark Syncing
From: Ian McCall on 3 Mar 2010 16:00 On 2010-03-03 20:56:42 +0000, David Kennedy <davidkennedy(a)nospamherethankyou.invalid> said: > System Prefs only allow you to go to December 2038. Very odd - January 2038 I could understand, but December? <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem> - note the January bit. Cheers, Ian
From: Richard Tobin on 3 Mar 2010 16:01 In article <1jesoic.1o6vyt21vibz7sN%adrian(a)poppyrecords.invalid.invalid>, Adrian Tuddenham <adrian(a)poppyrecords.invalid.invalid> wrote: >I have been playing about with the date functions in a Claris Works >spreadsheet and have discovered that 7th of February 2040 is the last >day on which it will work. > >Does this apply to all the other applications on OS8.6 which use the OS >to calculate the date ? Is OSX any different? Unix uses the number of seconds since Jan 1 1970. It traditionally stores this in a 32-bit signed integer, which will overflow in 2038. Presumably this will have changed to a 64-bit integer long before then. -- Richard -- Please remember to mention me / in tapes you leave behind.
From: Chris Ridd on 3 Mar 2010 16:26 Richard Tobin <richard(a)cogsci.ed.ac.uk> wrote: > Unix uses the number of seconds since Jan 1 1970. It traditionally > stores this in a 32-bit signed integer, which will overflow in > 2038. Presumably this will have changed to a 64-bit integer long > before > then. It already has - see those 64-bit apps? There's no way to properly allow 32-bit apps to use bigger time_ts while keeping binary compatibility, so 64 is the way to go. -- Chris
From: David Kennedy on 3 Mar 2010 16:50 Ian McCall wrote: > On 2010-03-03 20:56:42 +0000, David Kennedy > <davidkennedy(a)nospamherethankyou.invalid> said: > >> System Prefs only allow you to go to December 2038. > > Very odd - January 2038 I could understand, but December? > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem> - note the January bit. > Hmmmm, weird. -- David Kennedy http://www.anindianinexile.com
From: Richard Tobin on 3 Mar 2010 19:37
In article <1815951159289344162.828723chrisridd-mac.com(a)news.individual.net>, Chris Ridd <chrisridd(a)mac.com> wrote: >> Unix uses the number of seconds since Jan 1 1970. It traditionally >> stores this in a 32-bit signed integer, which will overflow in >> 2038. Presumably this will have changed to a 64-bit integer long >> before then. >It already has - see those 64-bit apps? I checked before posting, but unfortunately I checked on a Leopard system. It is indeed 64 bits when compiled in default mode on Snow Leopard. >There's no way to properly allow >32-bit apps to use bigger time_ts while keeping binary compatibility, so >64 is the way to go. It's a pity Apple didn't fix a few things like this when they switched to x86, when there was no binary compatibility to maintain. If there are still x86 32-bit systems around by then (which wouldn't surprise me - the 80386 was introduced 25 years ago, and there's only 28 years left), a workaround would be to change the interpretation of large negative times, making the range (say) 1950-2087, instead of 1901-2038. -- Richard -- Please remember to mention me / in tapes you leave behind. |