On Sun, 20 Apr 2008, Gerhard Fiedler wrote:

> Jinx wrote:
> 
> > Is the 2038 problem mentioned in C classes or tutorials ?
> 
> I don't think this is the most important question. IMO it is whether the
> really needed time span is mentioned in the specs of the software to be
> written. Probably most of the time bugs are not due to misunderstanding on
> the side of the programmer of the implications of using limited date
> ranges, but not sufficiently specified operational date ranges.
> 
> Gerhard

But you useually find that the person writing the specs does not know 
about programming limitations, that's one of the tasks of the programmer, 
to read the specs and highlight any problems he foresees (limitations).

The average H/W eng, chemist, microbioligist, vet etc (all pretty 
intelligent people) would assume that asking for a date / time stamp (on 
data being captured) would work for all dates and not just some small 
subset. To put this another way, the person writing the spec doesn't need 
to tell the programmer that certain variables should be 8, 16, or 32 bits 
wide integers or 32 or 64 bit floats. The programmer needs to sort that 
out. So why should the spec writer assume anything less for dates?

Regards
Sergio
-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist