Path: utzoo!utstat!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ukma!xanth!talos!kjones
From: kjones@talos.uucp (Kyle Jones)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: Our friend, the GMT date.
Message-ID: <1989Dec5.142032.7706@talos.uucp>
Date: 5 Dec 89 14:20:32 GMT
References: <4364@helios.ee.lbl.gov> <14810@well.UUCP> <1989Dec3.210413.27043@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu> <56239@looking.on.ca>
Reply-To: kjones@talos.uu.net
Lines: 16

Brad Templeton writes:
 > Almost makes me wonder if we/they shouldn't have started with a machine
 > only date field, integer seconds since some epoch.  (Could use the Unix
 > epoch, or even the USENET epoch, I guess.)
 > [...]
 > But it's too late to change now.  The only way a change could be done
 > would be to support both for many years, and that's hardly a solution!
 > (Based on news upgrades out in the field, at least 10 years!)

There's have to be some overlap, yes, but not until *everyone* upgrades
to the new software.  That'll never happen.  At some point we have to
shrug and say "to hell with them" or we'll never move forward.

Again, if we always humor the laggards who don't want to actually
administer and maintain their news systems, then we're letting the
people who care the least about USENET have the most influence over it.