I haven't been following this too closely up to this point but the problem
isn't with the Date & Time control panel. It is the case that the internal
Mac clock cannot handle dates past 2040. I wrote a program two years ago to
demonstrate this. True there are routines in the OS that allow Mac programs
to handle dates past 2040, but the Mac OS is not one of those programs that
use these routines. Really the problem isn't as easy as switching API's. The
Mac OS could have been updated in a way that would have used the new
routines long ago. For some reason or another that never happened. It most
definitely is not a range check issue with the Date & Time Control Panel.
The internal Mac clock stores time in the format of the number of seconds
since midnight 1/1/1904. It stores this date in a 32 bit integer. This
integer will roll over, if I recall correctly, late Feb 2040.
Mac OSX is in much better shape, I believe it has at least a couple thousand
years before this is an issue.
on 4/12/01 8:23 AM, Harry (lists) at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Geesz, take a chill-ill, and lay off the caffeine. There is no dark
> conspiracy at play here, or spindoctoring as you assume. If you had read the
> information people have provided at various times in this thread, instead of
> jumping to harebrained conclusions, you'd realize:
>
> * Apple's statement is correct - the internal routines are able to handle
> dates as far as 29,940 AD in the future.
>
> * Just because a separate program (Date & Time control panel) doesn't go
> beyond 2040 because of internal error checking, is no reflection on the
> entire OS underneath. As someone else pointed out, you CAN set the date with
> a separate product to anything within that range.
>
> * When they are stating that "The current Mac OS date and time utilities
> handle all dates between 30,081 B.C. and 29,940 A.D." then you are reading a
> document written by, partially, marketroids, that have, potentially never
> used a Mac in detail (just because it's a technote doesn't mean it hasn't
> been checked and written by marketing). Furthermore, the word 'utilities'
> does not necessarily refer to visible tools, but could very well refer to
> the underlying utilities that deal with this.
>
> * You need to take some relaxation classes.
>
> Seriously, while it is unfortunate that the Date&Time control panel blocks
> you off at 2040 (not because you might still be using that version of the OS
> by then, but because there might be reasons to advance the time to advance
> dates), I am quite certain that should you still be using the same machine
> and same OS in 39 years' time, a solution will be provided by the large
> chinese conglomerate that will own Apple computer by then.
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