[LEAPSECS] [time-nuts] Leap Quirks

Magnus Danielson magnus at rubidium.dyndns.org
Mon Jan 5 02:28:22 EST 2009


Poul-Henning,

Poul-Henning Kamp skrev:

> In message <5806D024-146D-43E4-AEA0-A7AA514E3EA4 at noao.edu>, Rob Seaman writes:

>> M. Warner Losh wrote:

>>

>>> POSIX doesn't support leap seconds.

>> I'm curious. Is this the only widely recognized shortcoming of POSIX?

>

> No, POSIX has numerous defects and bad choices, but barring a major

> effort by major governments, POSIX is what we have.

>

> One particular horrible example of POSIX stupidity is the lack of

> a pthread_mutex_assert() or the fact that pthread_cond_timedwait()

> takes an absolute time as timeout, not time interval.

>

> ISO-C has stupidities as well, I spent far more time on one of them

> because because people didn't think clearly:

>

> The strftime() function returns zero on error, or the length

> of the string produced.

>

> Now, imagine calling strftime("%p") in a locale which does not

> use AM/PM indication because they are 24h based.


It could be argued that:
A standard which is not revised constantly is a dead standard.

Thus:
A standard which does not have faults in it can't be revised constantly.

Cheers,
Magnus


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