[LEAPSECS] [time-nuts] Leap Quirks

[Magnus Danielson]

Rob,

Rob Seaman skrev:

> 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.


Hate to nitpick you, but that is a different representation, not a 
different interpretation.

The floating point number is thus in hours, is that more practical than 
say days?

Cheers,
Magnus