NetNews Offline 2/NetNews Offline Volume 2.iso/news/comp/lang/c-part1/7365

Internet Message Format | 1996-08-05 | 1.7 KB

Path: mail2news.demon.co.uk!genesis.demon.co.uk
From: Lawrence Kirby <[e-mail]>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Leap Years
Date: Sun, 25 Feb 96 19:12:55 GMT
Organization: none
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References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <4go5h2$[e-mail]>
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In article <4go5h2$[e-mail]>
           [e-mail] "Andy J Robb" writes:

>It is largely achademic, in the period 1901-2099 all years divisible
>by 4 are leap years.  Before that the Julian calender was still in
>widespread use (e.g. Russia until 1917).  In some parts of Britain
>(and elsewhere) before 1752(?) the year ended on March 22(?).
>
>My point is that before radio-astronomy (mainly), global time-keeping
>was a mess.  Who can guarantee that the Gregorian calender will be in
>use in 2100?

Anybody who can determine that it keeps the calendar year in sync with the
solar cycle up to that date and beyond.

> Many operating systems (Unix) will have run out of
>precision by then.

Very unlikely. While it is very difficult to guess what computers will be
like in 2100, one thing that is certain is that hardware (and OSs) will
have switched to 64 bit or wider word length decades before that. Also
even POSIX permits time_t to be a double or even long double.

--
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Lawrence Kirby | [e-mail]
Wilts, England | [e-mail]
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