java.util.Timer not handling negative System.currentTimeMillis()

Thu Nov 17 10:09:00 GMT 2005

Hi there,
I just encountered a funny (initially strange) problem arising because 
my embedded RT-Clock was set to the year 1909.
Hence System.currentTimeMillis() returns a negative number, and this is 
used internally in java.util.Timer#schedule(), and throws an unchecked 
exception - aarghh...
I know this is an obscure problem, but is there is requirement that we 
are only "allowed" to run gcj on targets with clocks > 1970.
One could change the Timer code to handle this situation, or just ignore it.
For now I will just make sure the time is not less than 1970 and larger 
than some other limit overflowing the long.
The problem arises because my target's RTC comes with an undefinded 
initial time - hence anything is possible :-)
// Martin