Binyamin Dissen wrote of STCK[E] values: | If used against the past, can one be sure of the various leap values applied? | | Is it GMT, UTC or LOCAL?
It is usable 'against the past' only after midnight 1899 December 31. The question whether it is GMT, UTC, or LOCAL misses the point. It is none of these. It is best thought of as a coarse-grained TIA-like value. No 'leap values' have been or should properly be applied to it. Its conversion into TUC, GD, or JD values does involve applying [different] leap values, but this is straightforward both for leap years and leap seconds. It is also possible, indeed easy, to devise an STCKE-based signed timestamp. To do so, one needs to sacrifice the high-order bit, which will in any cased be unset for about 18,000 years. Times before midnight 1899 December 31 can then be represented in the usual way as twos-complement values. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
