Re: timestamp patch to extend legal range of dates.

From: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: Oliver Elphick <olly(at)lfix(dot)co(dot)uk>
Cc: John Cochran <jdc(at)fiawol(dot)org>, pgsql-patches(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: timestamp patch to extend legal range of dates.
Date: 2003-02-04 16:02:37
Message-ID: 14658.1044374557@sss.pgh.pa.us
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Oliver Elphick <olly(at)lfix(dot)co(dot)uk> writes:
> On Tue, 2003-02-04 at 04:41, Tom Lane wrote:
>> This seems like rather an odd choice. Isn't the 1752 date commonly
>> recognized as the start of Gregorian dating?

> [ historical calendars are a mess ]

True. So if I've got this straight:

Oct 15, 1582 = Gregorian changeover in Catholic countries
Sep 14, 1752 = changeover in Britain and her colonies
various other dates in other places

However, that doesn't mean we should just toss a coin to decide which
behavior to follow. John says that there is a precedent for using
1752 (but which Unix are you speaking of here, John? Most of 'em don't
keep time before ~1900, period). I'd be inclined to follow that
precedent not strike out on our own.

Also, given that the majority of Postgres users are (so far as I can
tell) in English-speaking countries, the 1752 date seems most useful
to the majority.

I suppose we could contemplate making the switch occur on a date
determined by LC_TIME ;-) ... but I don't think I wanna go there ...

regards, tom lane

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