mktime, how to handle dates before 01-01-1970 ?

[Ben Finney]

John Yeung <gallium.arsenide at gmail.com> writes:

> I think the choice of epoch is not a big deal, once you pick one far
> enough back. Ben Finney's suggestion to use 4004 BCE is not
> appreciably different (computationally) from JDN. (Though I will say
> that the Wikipedia link he provided doesn't mention 4004 BCE, and if
> anything suggests using 1 CE as the epoch.)

My apologies, I gave the wrong year. I was intending to refer to the
<URL:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_date> system, which begins at
the year −4712 (4713 BCE).

This has the advantages of:

* clearly covering spans of human history more recent than ancient
  civilisations

* having a long-recognised standard specification

* being commonly used in computing (for astronomy and other scientific
  computing applications)

* making arithmetic on dates simple (it uses a year zero, making the
  time line an uninterrupted number line)

-- 
 \          “When we talk to God, we're praying. When God talks to us, |
  `\         we're schizophrenic.” —Jane Wagner, via Lily Tomlin, 1985 |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney