🚀 go-pugleaf

Zooko Journeyman (zooko@xs4all.nl) wrote:
: [cross--posted to c.s.y2k in order to solicit criticism.  --Z]

: [c.s.y2k'ers:  READ THE THRAD in c.o.l.d.s. before 
: following-up!  --Z]

: >The only place where you might run into trouble is because computer
: >hardware clock maintains the 2-digit date, so that loading the system
: >clock on bootup from the hardware clock would result in a 1900 date in
: >year 2000. This is easy to fix; simply, getting years 00 to 90 from the
: >stupid hardware clock will result in adding 2000, not 1900, to the
: >year, and we are good for 90 more years. Since Linux didn't exist before
: >1990, it is not going to cause problems :^)

I run Linux on 2 known-noncompliant boxes, and Linux takes care of it's
dating with just the clock with no need for the century byte. DOS needs
the century byte however. Using a BIOS tester in DOS, my Packrat Bell both
fails the "boot after the party" and "run during the party" test. The
clock rolls back to 1900 in both cases, but Linux keeps the correct date
in both cases by software reading the clock and using the 2 digits. Linux
takes advantage of the 2038 rule as it was invented much later and thus,
every year within Linux's "life" is unique even without a century byte. 

Happy New Year!

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