[LEAPSECS] POSIX and C (Was: Re: ISO Influence)

[Steve Allen]

On 2010 Dec 19, at 09:32, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:

> Where would they get their leap-second-offset from ?


Dip switches?  Thumbwheels?  Wi-fi?  Bluetooth?  CDMA?  3G/4G?
After all, Intel has just announced processors with 3G phone
capability built in, so how can anyone predict?

As things stand anyone who implements "UTC" is likely to get flamed,
either for conforming to the ITU-R recommendation, or for not
conforming.  This is not a good incentive structure for innovation.

As it stands, as it is in use by various standards and systems,
UTC is irreparably broken.  Discarding the name "UTC" for the
technological underpinning of the operational systems and replacing
it with a new name that describes a well-defined-from-the-start
replacement is a good step toward motivating innovation.
                                                                           
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