[LEAPSECS] (no subject)

[Poul-Henning Kamp]

In message <8D831340-BE80-4595-9E73-EAA3465A41B6 at ucolick.org>, Steve Allen writ
es:


>If leap seconds go into zoneinfo, then they are only as much nuisance

>as when the political princes of the world decree a change in the

>rules for time zones, and not even total unanimity within the ITU can

>stop that.


That depends critically on how often we have to change the zoneinfo
files.

Many systems avoid local timezones, to decouple the princes whims
from their operation, the poster boy example being air traffic
control, where everything is in UTC.

Putting leapseconds in zoneinfo would put an update obligation on
ATC-, and possibly on-board-, systems to get their zoneinfo files
updated regularly.

The difference between six months and ten years is the difference
between "unacceptable" and "something we an live with".

Getting rid of leap seconds, solves the problem entirely for the
ATC application domain.

Poul-Henning

-- 
Poul-Henning Kamp       | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
phk at FreeBSD.ORG         | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer       | BSD since 4.3-tahoe    
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.