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From: Robert Dewar <robert_dewar@my-deja.com>
Subject: Re: Y21C Bug
Date: 2000/01/05
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In article <387246D7.8B1B2E8B@earthlink.net>,
  Charles Hixson <charleshixsn@earthlink.net> wrote:
> Robert Dewar wrote:
>
> >
> > Indeed it is a HUGE effort to make some code 64-bit clean,
and
> > my guess is that unices will support 32-bit code for a long
> > time, and it will be a bad earthquake when there is a
> > requirement to change legacy 32-bit code to make it 64-bit
> > compatible (as will possibly happen at the date blow up time
> > (which will happen in our life times for at least some of
us).
> >
>
> But I believe that it would be a mistake to begin conversions
of
> programs to 64-bit mode for the next couple of years (except
in
> special circumstances).  After that...
>
> With 64 bit numbers available, I propose a new time standard,
based
> around 64-bit floats.  We need a SMALL floating number (16
bits?) to
> specify the millennium, and a large floating number (64 bits)
to
> specify the time.  (0 = center of the millennium, +- 1 = +-
500
> years, etc.).  Current Millennium = 2 (years 2,000->2,999,
CE).  (I
> allow for a year 0 before the year 1, if you wish to print
that out
> as 1 BC, that's merely a formatting issue.)
>


I am sort of guessing that a smiley is missing here, but if not,
time is clearly a case where absolute error control and not
relative error control is important, so the use of fixed point
is far preferable.


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