[LEAPSECS] (no subject)

[Poul-Henning Kamp]

In message <49513.1229953858 at uk2.net>, Peter Vince writes:


>I am trying to clarify in my mind a couple of proposals, one of which is having no more leap-seconds in the civil (broadcast) 

>time scale.  I'm sorry, I must have missed your messages where you said that a lot of software would fail in that scenario - 

>could you briefly clarify please?


There is one (major) problem: software does not grok leapseconds.

One of the solutions Rob peddles for this, is "Make a new timescale
without leap seconds, and leave leap seconds in the UTC timescale".

This does not fly because a lot of systems are legally mandated to
use the UTC timescale.

Changing all those laws and regulations, just because a single
astronomer is very emotionally attached to the name "UTC" is just
not going to happen :-)

Poul-Henning

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