[whatwg] Expanding datetime

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

On Apr 24, 2008, at 10:05 AM, Lachlan Hunt wrote:
>
> Ernest Cline wrote:
>>
>> From a practical viewpoint, being able to specify dates before 
>> January 1, 1 BC (Gregorian) would allow for historical dates not 
>> currently available to be specified in markup of documents concerning 
>> history.
>
> Such dates do not need to be published on the web in machine readable 
> readable formats.  How often to do you need to book a flight, or add 
> an event to your calendar that far back in the past?

On a museum's Web site, you might want to search its database of 
antiquities for those from the Mauryan Empire. In an online 
encyclopedia, you might want to find people who were alive at the same 
time as Alexander the Great. On a genealogy site, you might want to 
publish the family tree of the leaders of the Han dynasty.

>> ...The Y10K problem can also be pushed back by this, but is of only 
>> theoretical importance.
>
> There are still 7992 years before we need to have a Y10K solution
> implemented.  Thus we can safely leave it to to future generations to 
> solve.
> ...

Yeah yeah, that's what they said last time. ;-)

-- 
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/