Subj : alternative DateTime (ref: fts-0001.016)
To   : andrew clarke
From : Maurice Kinal
Date : Mon Dec 21 2020 04:46 pm

Hey andrew!

 ac> This is just creating busywork for the handful of developers
 ac> left (eg. me, occasionally) and new bugs for no benefit.

I am surprised nobody has criticised me over the year 9999 yet but perhaps they are all too distracted by backwards compatibilty rather than forwards compatibilty.

 ac> In Fidonet you can safely assume that a two-digit year in any
 ac> message is in the range of 1984-2083, given that the network
 ac> began in 1984.

Actually I've brought that up before but on my systems the real problem starts on 2069 since a two digit year reports itself as 1969 which in turn will create a negative time_t;

-={ date --date="01 Jan 69" +%s }=-
-31536000

Now that is scary.  Mind you I will be well over 100 years old by then and unlikely to be a nodelisted Fidonet sysop, if indeed I make it that far.

 ac> 0. do nothing
 ac> 1. modify the 1984-2083 window in their mail reader
 ac> 2. invent a ^A control line that has the four digit year in it

 ac> #1 is easiest.

I'd bet that 0. is the most likely and I including myself in that mix.

Life is good,
Maurice

.... Don't cry for me I have vi.
--- GNU bash, version 5.1.0(1)-release (x86_64-motorshed-linux-gnu)
 * Origin: Little Mikey's Brain - Ladysmith BC, Canada (1:153/7001)

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