Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!linac!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!spool.mu.edu!uunet!ns-mx!argos.weeg.uiowa.edu!jnford From: jnford@argos.weeg.uiowa.edu (Jay Ford) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains Subject: Re: decimals in the serial field Message-ID: <6529@ns-mx.uiowa.edu> Date: 17 Jun 91 19:55:19 GMT References: <9106141643.AA26522@gaak.LCS.MIT.EDU> Sender: news@ns-mx.uiowa.edu Organization: Weeg Computing Center, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA Lines: 21 In article , jbryans@beach.csulb.edu (Jack Bryans) writes: |> In article bob@MorningStar.Com (Bob Sutterfield) writes: |> |> > I find numbers like 91061203 much more readable. That denotes my |> > third try last Wednesday. It even sorts, if that's of any value to |> > you. |> |> What happens in nine years? X.500? Or, a serial number format of yyyymmddnn (with a 4-digit year) could be used. Numbers of this format increase monotonically and will fit in an unsigned 32-bit field through the year 4294 (2^32 - 1 = 4294967295). (For brain-dead DNS implementations which do signed serial numbers, it will work through 2147.) You can even go from the yymmddnn format to the yyyymmddnn format without getting into trouble, because the numbers will always increase. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jay Ford, Weeg Computing Center, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242 jnford@handlebar.weeg.uiowa.edu, 319-335-5555