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From: jkenton@pinocchio.encore.com (Jeff Kenton)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: 64 bits for times....
Message-ID: <12570@encore.Com>
Date: 23 Aug 90 10:56:57 GMT
References: <67535@sgi.sgi.com>
Sender: news@encore.Com
Lines: 35

From article <67535@sgi.sgi.com>, by rpw3@rigden.wpd.sgi.com (Rob Warnock):
> In article <2506@dino.cs.iastate.edu> hascall@cs.iastate.edu
> (John Hascall) writes:
> +---------------
> | }that VMS (i think) has some funny date like 1858 as its epoch, the so-called
> | }smithsonian time.
> |    VMS keeps time in 64 bits (really 63, negative times are "delta times"), 
> |    in 100 nSec units, since 17 Nov 1858 (when the calendar jumped 11 days?).
> +---------------
> 
> Nice try, but no go. 17 Nov 1858 was the date of the first (recorded) high-
> quality astronomical photograph. It is used as Day Zero for quite a few
> systems. The DEC PDP-10 also used that as Day Zero, b.t.w. (Didn't CDC, too?)
> 

The magic date John is thinking of is September 1752 (try 'man cal'):

cal 9 1752

   September 1752
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
       1  2 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30







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      jeff kenton  ---	temporarily at jkenton@pinocchio.encore.com	 
		   ---  always at (617) 894-4508  ---
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