Re: 5th USENIX Conf on Object-Oriented Tech & Sys (COOTS'99) - CFP

[nobody@REPLAY.COM (Anonymous)]

<uwwbnqmby.fsf@ANARRES.i-did-not-set--mail-host-address--so-shoot-me>
<EswwJ2.EBG@usenix.org> <199805141444.QAA10968@basement.replay.com>

On 15 May 1998 17:02:41 -0400, Stephen.Leake@gsfc.nasa.gov wrote:

> nobody@REPLAY.COM (Anonymous) writes:
> 
> > On Wed, 13 May 1998 20:21:02 GMT, jackson@usenix.org (Jackson Dodd)
> > wrote:
> > 
> > > ...
> > > As the last COOTS before the new millennium, COOTS '99 will focus 
> > > ...
> > 
> > Apparently there will be no COOTS in 2000, the last year of the 2nd
> > millenium.
> 
> Ok, I'll bite (it's late Friday, and I haven't written any Ada today :).
> 
> Who says the next millenium can't start with 2000? That's when most of
> the digits change. That's when the 21st century begins (the "century"
> is the first two digits of the year, plus one). That's when all the
> non-Y2K programs will break. The current millenium started in 1000 AD,
> the one before that in 0 AD, the one before that in ... hmm, things
> get tricky for BC, but I'll just ignore that.
> ...

Thank you for biting :)

No one says the next millenium can't start with 2000. Invent your own
calendar and you can have it start wherever you want. However, the
calendar we use is the "Common Calendar," and the 3rd millenium and the
21st century both start in 2001 Common Era (CE).

I know of no calendar with a year 0 AD. According to the Gregorian
Calendar (which is very similar to the Common Calendar except for how
years are named), the current year is AD 1998, so perhaps that's the
calendar you're using. However, the Gregorian Calendar has no year "0
AD," nor AD 0. AD 1 was preceded by 1 BC.

Under the Common Calendar, the current year is 1998 CE. It was preceded
by 1997 CE, which was preceded by 1996 CE, ..., which was preceded by 2
CE, which was preceded by 1 CE, which was preceded by 1 Before Common
Era (BCE), which was preceded by 2 BCE, and so on. (I offer this
restatement of what we all know only so no one may claim that my
statements are incorrect according to some other calendar, such as the
Jewish Calendar.) This may not be a good way to number years, but it's
the way we do it.

A consequence of this numbering system is that the first year of both
the first century and the first millenium of the common era was 1 CE.
The last year of the first century was, therefore, 100 CE, and the last
year of the first millenium was 1000 CE. The last year of the 20th
century and the second millenium will be 2000 CE. The first year of the
21st century and the third millenium will be 2001 CE.

I note in passing that the century is not always the same as "the first
two digits of the year, plus one." Obviously this will never hold after
9999 CE (when an enormous quantity of legacy code from the late 20th
century will fail, the infamous Y10k problem), nor did it hold in 1900
CE, the last year of the 19th century.

Since we're dealing with numbers, we can also take a quasi-mathematical
approach to this. Prove that 2000 CE is not the first year of the third
millenium. We assume the opposite of that which we must prove and show
that it leads to a contradiction. Assume that 2000 CE is the first year
of the third millenium. Then the first year of the second millenium was
1000 CE and the first year of the first millenium was 0 CE. But there
was no year 0 CE; therefore, 2000 CE is not the first year of the third
millenium.

Everyone is entitled to his own opinions, but there is only one set of
facts. Knowing something that "ain't so" is ignorance. We are all
ignorant, so there is no shame attached to it. However, continuing to
know something after being informed that it "ain't so" is stupidity. I
doubt if anyone who contributes to this news group is stupid. (I can say
this because it's been many months since I've seen a posting by the Rev.
You-Know-Who.)

Thank you, and have a nice millenium.

Jeff Carter  PGP:1024/440FBE21
My real e-mail address: ( carter @ innocon . com )
"Monsieur Arthur King, who has the brain of a duck, you know."
Monty Python & the Holy Grail

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