[LEAPSECS] [time-nuts] Leap Quirks

[Rob Seaman]

Magnus Danielson wrote:


> time_t = d*86400 + h*3600 + m*60 + s


Just thought I'd note an alternate interpretation.  In NOAO's widely  
distributed image processing system (IRAF) a sexagesimal number is a  
double precision floating point number, not an integer:

	12:34:56 = 12 + 34/60 + 56.0/3600

Wherever a float can appear, a sexagesimal string is permitted.  Our  
version of printf includes %h and %H for turning a binary float back  
into dd:mm:ss.s or hh:mm:ss.s.

A particular application may need to count integer seconds (as in our  
own date and time library, perhaps), but the need is remarkably  
infrequent.  For the vast majority of cases sexagesimal numbers behave  
like floats.

Rob Seaman
National Optical Astronomy Observatory