3 ms·
RFC 2550 at https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2550 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2550 points out "Floating Point Is No Solution" in §1.2.3.2,
by eesmith 5y ago
RFC 2550 at https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2550 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2550 points out "Floating Point Is No Solution" in §1.2.3.2, and earlier stresses the importance of lexical sorting. The authors propose a time encoding scheme valid up to the year 10 ** 18308.
(Hint: look at the publication date.)
- kragen 5y agoOh dear, I never thought about the year 922,337,203,685,477 problem before.
- eesmith 5y agoIt's important if we want our time system to survive until the Degenerate Era. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_an_expanding_universe#Degenerate_Era https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_an_expanding_univers... 128 bits isn't even enough to get to the putative half-life of proton decay. There's some truly mind-boggling numbers in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_an_expanding_universe#Beyond https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_an_expanding_univers... "the non-zero probability of producing a new Big Bang in roughly 10^10^10^56 years"(!). These numbers are far beyond https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2550#section-2.4.1 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2550#section-2.4.1 , which is only 10^14; about the time star formation ceases. Time for an updated RFC!