Dumb questions about GMT offset in tm structure

[seismo!hplabs!hpfcla!hpfclj!hpfcdg!rgt]

>Here's a wild idea:
>If the two high order bits of a time_t are 11,...

At this point, I think we should  acknowledge  that  computers are at as
level of  sophistication  that does not require  such an approach to the
problem.  (However, I would not be opposed  some type of Pascal  variant
record formulation which does the same thing.)

Please  see my  proposal  within  the last week of  defining  a parallel
date_t signed long integer which would be days (rather than  seconds) in
the UN*X epoch.  (The parallel  request is that time_t be signed  also.)
Using  -2147483648 to +2147483647  as the bounds of a 32-bit signed long
integer I compute  that it would span around 5.8  million  years  either
side of Jan 1, 1970.

A date_t and time_t pair of signed long integers  could be used together
to give a meridian day for any  interesting  epoch and a time within the
epoch.  The assumed meridian (for existing applications) would be Jan 1,
1970.

>	Mark

Ron Tolley