[LEAPSECS] How good could civil timekeeping be?

[Steve Allen]

On Thu 2008-02-14T21:53:37 +0000, Poul-Henning Kamp hath writ:

> But even the zoneinfo leapsecond table can not solve the basic

> problem telling the two identical time_t values apart.


Which is not henceforth troublesome if time_t becomes TI.


> There is far too much code and data out there to even contemplate

> changing the definition of time_t.


That's what they said about changing the conventional longitudes of
every observatory on the planet in order to get agreement on the value
of UT starting in 1962.  But in 1961 the IAU said "do it", and they
did -- even in cases where it caused a time step in the sovereign time
scale of a nation, and even where it introduced a new, potentially
ambiguous notion of origin of longitude for civil mapping.

--
Steve Allen                 <sla at ucolick.org>                WGS-84 (GPS)
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