Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!rutgers!dynasys!jessea
From: jessea@dynasys.UUCP (Jesse W. Asher)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp
Subject: UUCP status files and wierd dates - revisted.
Message-ID: <754@dynasys.UUCP>
Date: 21 Nov 90 16:42:05 GMT
References: <736@dynasys.UUCP> <803@sci34hub.UUCP>
Reply-To: jessea@dynasys.UUCP ()
Organization: Dynasys:  Consulting for the Future.
Lines: 37

In article <803@sci34hub.UUCP>, gary@sci34hub.sci.com (Gary Heston) wrote the following:
>In article <736@dynasys.UUCP> jessea@dynasys.UUCP (Jesse W. Asher) writes:
>=I was looking in the status files for UUCP connections and I was trying
>=to figure out what date was used to calculate the below number:
>
>=0 0 658135267 0 SUCCESSFUL rutgers
>     ^^^^^^^^^
>
>=I assume that this is the date of the last connection.  If this assumption
>=is incorrect, what is this number?  If it is correct, I have a few more
>=questions.  Why is such an old date used?  Why not just use the beginning
>
>The date is the internal format, which is defined as the number of seconds
>since January 1, 1970. (Reportedly day 0, year 0, of the age of Unix.)
>
>All Unix dates are maintained in this format, for some reason; in things
>like ls you see a converted date.

I guess I didn't make myself very clear when I posted the original message.
I knew the date was in the early seventies (couldn't remember exactly when
though).  The main thrust of my posting was

WHY is this date used?  WHY can't the beginning of the year be used instead?
It seems like a waste of resources to compute a date from the number of
seconds given for a twenty year old date - especially if so many programs
use this format.  The only thing I can think of that would make things 
difficult might be leap years.  No one answered why this is used and 
why something better couldn't be used.  That's what I really wanted to know.

Thanks to all those that did reply, though.  


-- 
      Jesse W. Asher                             Phone: (901)382-1609 
               6196-1 Macon Rd., Suite 200, Memphis, TN 38134
                UUCP: {fedeva,chromc,rutgers}!dynasys!jessea
 -> An atheist is a man with no invisible means of support.