[JDEV] Message timestamping - hybrid format

[Zoom Juice]

> From what day does it count up though?  

It doesn't matter, as long as we all agree on which day it is.  Pick one.

> And in order to be able to count up from
> that date and calculate what day it now is...doesn't it have to then still know the
> calendar?

The client can get the current day number from the server.  There will typically
be more fewer servers written than client and the server code will typically be
of higher quality.

> The other way the application doesn't have to know the calendar because
> it is specified already.

That is only if the client will not be asked to do any client-side processing
on the timestamp.  So that clients don't have to know the calendar, we can add 
a message that asks the server to resolve the current date to yy:mm:dd format -
that way we can reasonably expect the job to be done write.  This inquiry
would typically be sent only once per client start up, although a lazy client
could send it every time it wants to display a date.  It seems to me that,
regardless of how the time stamp format ends up, having an inquiry to
get the current date from the server (relative to GMT of course) is a 
good idea.

To help focus your thoughts on this, just one word: "leapyear".


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