Re: February 30th 2000

[Theodore Y. Ts'o]

   Date:   Fri, 14 Jan 2000 09:06:00 +1300
   From: Chris Wedgwood <[e-mail]>

   > Our current (gregorian) rules come to 
   > 
   > 	365 + 1/4 - 1/100 + 1/400 = 365.2425
   > 
   > The difference with 365.24219878 is: .00030122, which means that every
   > 3320 years or so, we're having one too many leap years. So, I would
   > suggest that we make the year 3300 a leap year. And 6600, 9900, 13300
   > and so on.... (*)

   Years evenly divisible by 4000 are _not_ leap years. I only know of
   one (nay, two shortly) piece of code which take this into account...

There's a good reason for that.  The 4000 rule has no official standing.
If you work out the numbers, then the 4000 rule makes sense.  This is
why a number of people have suggested it.  

However, no government or astronomical authority has officially blessed
the 4000 rule at this point.  After all, we do have a few centuries to
figure this one out.  :-)

Now, can we *please* get this off the linux-kernel list?

						- Ted