https://mastodon.social/@jdm_/116429380667467307
Article
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A Servo test written ~2016 hardcoded a date expected to be safely in the future.
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That date is now 2026, causing the test to fail.
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PR to fix it reveals cascading date errors: weekdays also wrong in the replacement.
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Highlights fragility of hardcoded dates in long-lived test suites.
Discussion
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Commenters recommend deterministic time bubbles (like Go’s testing/synctest) over hardcoded dates.
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One commenter notes the idea of intentional expiry dates as forced code review is appealing.
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SAML certificate story: similar 10-year time bomb now 7 years in, dreading expiry.
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Y2K parallel drawn — 1980s code authors never imagined systems surviving that long.
Discuss on HN