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Re: Millisecond precision in timestamps?

From
Robin Rosenberg <robin.rosenberg@dewire.com>
Date
Dec 5, 2012, 23:37 UTC
Message-ID
<2439538.19317881.1354750621740.JavaMail.root@dewire.com>
In-Reply-To
<CAJDDKr6n2KSZz5zPHeWiYHAP7Zr02Ti-e24AX1yR_XAXAKhscg@mail.gmail.com>
----- Ursprungligt meddelande -----
Show 17 quoted lines
> On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 11:58 PM, Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>
> wrote:
> > Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>:
> >> Roundtrip conversions may benefit from sub-second timestamps, but
> >> personally I think negative timestamps are more interesting and of
> >> practical use.
> >
> > You mean, as in times before the Unix epoch 1970-01-01T00:00:00Z?
> >
> > Interesting.  I hadn't thought of that.  I've never seen a software
> > project under version control with bits that old, which is
> > significant
> > because I've probably done more digging into ancient software than
> > anybody other than a specialist historian or two.
> 
> One example I've heard is someone wanting to throw the history
> of a country's laws into git so they can diff them.

Not sure any laws were passed on Feb 30th 1712 in sweden, but perhaps you can define new time zones to handle that, but I doubt it is practically doable when you get to countries and regions with less precise boundaries.

Seconds-since as a representation for dates is a dangerous and very messy game. Java gets it wrong somewhere in 1910 and my guess is others get it wrong too. There is change in time zones which triggers the bug.

-- robin
Previous: Andreas EricssonNext: James Cloos
Message 23 of 41 in “Millisecond precision in timestamps?”
  1. Eric S. RaymondNov 27, 2012
  2. Shawn PearceNov 27, 2012
  3. Junio C HamanoNov 27, 2012
  4. Eric S. RaymondNov 27, 2012
  5. Shawn PearceNov 27, 2012
  6. Eric S. RaymondNov 28, 2012
  7. David LangNov 28, 2012
  8. Felipe ContrerasNov 28, 2012
  9. Shawn PearceNov 28, 2012
  10. Jeff KingNov 28, 2012
  11. Jason PyeronNov 28, 2012
  12. Felipe ContrerasNov 28, 2012
  13. Eric S. RaymondNov 28, 2012
  14. Jeff KingNov 28, 2012
  15. Felipe ContrerasNov 28, 2012
  16. Eric S. RaymondNov 28, 2012
  17. Jeff KingNov 28, 2012
  18. Eric S. RaymondNov 28, 2012
  19. Junio C HamanoNov 28, 2012
  20. Eric S. RaymondNov 28, 2012
  21. David AguilarNov 28, 2012
  22. Andreas EricssonNov 28, 2012
  23. Robin RosenbergDec 5, 2012
  24. James CloosDec 10, 2012
  25. Thomas BergNov 28, 2012
  26. Felipe ContrerasNov 28, 2012
  27. Thomas BergNov 28, 2012
  28. Junio C HamanoNov 28, 2012
  29. Andreas EricssonNov 28, 2012
  30. Phil HordNov 29, 2012
  31. Jeff KingNov 29, 2012
  32. Eric S. RaymondNov 28, 2012
  33. Felipe ContrerasNov 28, 2012
  34. Junio C HamanoNov 28, 2012
  35. Pyeron, Jason J CTR (US)Nov 27, 2012
  36. Eric S. RaymondNov 29, 2012
  37. Junio C HamanoNov 29, 2012
  38. Felipe ContrerasNov 29, 2012
  39. Eric S. RaymondNov 29, 2012
  40. Junio C HamanoNov 29, 2012
  41. Eric S. RaymondNov 29, 2012

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