Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!sunfs3!kent
From: kent@sunfs3.camex.uucp (Kent Borg)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: why 1904?  ms excel
Message-ID: <500@sunfs3.camex.uucp>
Date: 8 Sep 89 16:35:13 GMT
References: <457a7553.1285f@maize.engin.umich.edu> <30291@srcsip.UUCP> <3270@wasatch.utah.edu>
Reply-To: kent@lloyd.UUCP (Kent Borg)
Organization: Camex, Inc., Boston, Mass USA
Lines: 23

In article <3270@wasatch.utah.edu> kessler%cons.utah.edu@wasatch.utah.edu (Robert R. Kessler) writes:

[About people wondering why the Macintosh thinks the beginning of time
is Jan 1, 1904, and that it makes leap year computing easier.]

>So, you don't have to special case the software to know about
>centuries that aren't multiples of 400.  I suspect that it will
>think Feb 29, 2100 is a legal date (just a guess).

Nope.  A longint of seconds starting at the beginning of 1904 runs out
in early February of 2040.  It won't make it to Feb 2100 on the
original scheme.

Speaking of what original scheme can't do, the 7.0 Script Manager (and
I think the current Script Manager too) has a LongDateTime which is a
64-bit signed ("SANE Comp format") number.  It has a range of about
500-billion years, centered around Jan 1, 1904 still.  That should
last us a little longer.

-- 
Kent Borg				"You know me, bright ideas 
kent@lloyd.uucp				 just pop into my head!"
or							-Mrs Lovett
...!husc6!lloyd!kent		        (from Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeny Todd")