Portable general timestamp format, not 2038-limited

[Roy Smith]

ames Harris <james.harris.1 at googlemail.com> wrote:

> I have a requirement to store timestamps in a database. Simple enough
> you might think but finding a suitably general format is not easy. The
> specifics are
> 
> 1) subsecond resolution - milliseconds or, preferably, more detailed
> 2) not bounded by Unix timestamp 2038 limit
> 3) readable in Java
> 4) writable portably in Perl which seems to mean that 64-bit values
> are out
> 5) readable and writable in Python
> 6) storable in a free database - Postgresql/MySQL

Astronomers use Julian Date (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_date) for 
calculations like this.  It's a widely used format and highly portable.  
I'm sure there are libraries to deal with it in all the languages you 
mention (and more).  Ask on sci.astro for more information.