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Something about your comment rubs me the wrong way, and I think it’s a kind of toxic idealism that doesn’t acknowledge how software isn’t a mathematical object
by jeromebaek 7y ago
Something about your comment rubs me the wrong way, and I think it’s a kind of toxic idealism that doesn’t acknowledge how software isn’t a mathematical object but situated in the real world.
You realize 48 years ago is the Unix epoch? Circumventing this problem to admit commits that were made before 1970, which clearly has no real world use case, is over engineering at its worst. Similarly, with designing a system to last longer than 68 years. The number of tech companies that have lasted more than 68 years can be counted on one hand.
- eru 7y agoIt would be overkill to move from 32 bits of Unix timestamps to 64 bit signed ints just for this application. But it might be a good idea in general, and then it would solve this issue as a side effect.
- jeromebaek 7y agoSure, but that’s a problem way down the stack, a problem for language designers, not application developers.
- eru 7y agoWell, they are also getting six figure salaries. But in any case, eg Python supports dates before 1970 just fine. It was a conscious decision by the application developers of git to restrict themselves to whatever C has to offer.
- gdy 7y agoThe word 'toxic' is toxic.
- TeMPOraL 7y agoAnd then you wonder why our technology is a pile of garbage built on top of a steaming pile of half-composted garbage, always breaking, and why a good chunk of software jobs consist mostly or solely of keeping it from falling apart. What's toxic is being penny-wise, pound-foolish repeatedly, at the scale of the industry.
- Torwald 7y ago> The number of tech companies that have lasted more than 68 years can be counted on one hand. IBM, Siemens, Texas Instruments, that's it of the top of my head. Anyone else?