I am thinking this could be like DNS serial numbers. Possibly the code was written with a integer serial number (ok using signed is wrong) but then someone else thinks to make things easier for humans we will use this date format for the serial.
Its quite possible that was never in the spec given to the programmer.
DNS serial numbers are 32 bit unsigned and the convention is to use YYYYMMDDNN
So this _convention_ breaks in year 4295, or if someone forgot to put unsigned 2148.
It is only a convention though DNS only cares that the serial increases.
Comments
I am thinking this could be like DNS serial numbers. Possibly the code was written with a integer serial number (ok using signed is wrong) but then someone else thinks to make things easier for humans we will use this date format for the serial. Its quite possible that was never in the spec given to the programmer.
DNS serial numbers are 32 bit unsigned and the convention is to use YYYYMMDDNN
So this _convention_ breaks in year 4295, or if someone forgot to put unsigned 2148. It is only a convention though DNS only cares that the serial increases.