I'm probably coming in late to the game, but exactly
why is seconds-since-epoch format used instead of a format
more easily understood by humans? Yes, I know tools
can easily convert that, but you're already using an ASCII format;
why not just record it in a format that's easily eyeballed like ISO's
yyyymmddThhmmss [timezone]? E.G.:
20050417T171520 +0200
or some such? I'm SURE that people will mention things
like "the patch I posted on April 17, 2005", and having the
patch format record times that way, directly, would be convenient
to the poor slobs^H^H^H^H^H developers who come later.
Yes, a tool can handle the conversion, but choosing formats
so a tool is unneeded for simple stuff is often better....!
--- David A. Wheeler