On Thu, 2016-12-22 at 21:50 -0700, Warner Losh wrote: > > These are the reasons I hate leap seconds: they are of dubious value > and cause all kinds of havoc because nobody expects them to work, and > the programming standards are written as if they don't exist. > > Warner
Dubious value: leap seconds cause UTC, and thus civil time, to track the sun. I don't regard that value as dubious. Cause all kinds of havoc because nobody expects them to work: expectations can be changed by fixing the applications so that they do work. Fixing applications takes time, and expectations will lag behind the fixes, but given time the problem is not unsolvable. The programming standards are written as if they don't exist: no longer completely true--POSIX, for example, implicitly acknowledges their existence before requiring applications to pretend they don't exist. Standards follow practice: when applications routinely handle leap seconds correctly, their techniques will be incorporated into standards. John Sauter (john_sau...@systemeyescomputerstore.com) -- PGP fingerprint E24A D25B E5FE 4914 A603 49EC 7030 3EA1 9A0B 511E
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