[Info-vax] Celebrae the beginning of the epoch!

[Jan-Erik Soderholm]

Den 2016-11-17 kl. 12:53, skrev Roy Omond:
> On 17/11/16 11:37, Peter Flass wrote:
>> Rich Alderson <news at alderson.users.panix.com> wrote:
>>> At least the one for TOPS-20, late versions of Tops-10, and *VMS.
>>>
>>> Time began at midnight GMT on 17 November 1858,
>>> which is 16:00 on 16 November 1858 Pacific Standard Time.  The math is
>>> left as
>>> an exercise for those in other time zones.
>>>
>>> Today will mark the 158th anniversary.
>>>
>>> Huzzah!
>>>
>>
>> What's the significance of the date?
>
> http://h41379.www4.hpe.com/wizard/wiz_2315.html
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_day

This quote from

http://web.archive.org/web/20070606064704/http://vms.tuwien.ac.at/info/humour/vms-base-time-origin.txt

is classical:

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VMS should have no trouble with time until:

    31-JUL-31086 02:48:05.47

At this time, all clocks and time-keeping operations within VMS
will suddenly stop, as system time values go negative.

Note that all time display and manipulation routines within VMS
allow for only 4 digits within the 'YEAR' field.  We expect this
to be corrected in a future release of VAX/VMS sometime prior
to 31-DEC-9999.
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