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From: ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Date/time limits (was Re: GetDateTime() problem)
Message-ID: <1991Jan31.184235.2873@waikato.ac.nz>
Date: 31 Jan 91 05:42:35 GMT
References: <YbdZfmW00UhWI5H1B=@andrew.cmu.edu> <1991Jan31.022340.12265@verity.com>
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
Lines: 18

In article <1991Jan31.022340.12265@verity.com>, anders@verity.com
(Anders Wallgren) makes the following comment about the system
reference date/time:

"(WHY do they [use 1st January 1904]? It seems REALLY gratuitous to go
that far back)..."

I assume you're just kidding, here...

There are many applications where you want to represent dates outside
the actual lifetime of the machine (or of the person using it...).
System 6.0 introduced new Script Manager routines which support dates/
times spanning a range of, if I remember correctly, about 50,000 years.

Lawrence D'Oliveiro                       fone: +64-71-562-889
Computer Services Dept                     fax: +64-71-384-066
University of Waikato            electric mail: ldo@waikato.ac.nz
Hamilton, New Zealand    37^ 47' 26" S, 175^ 19' 7" E, GMT+13:00