[LEAPSECS] Crunching Bulletin B numbers (POSIX time)

[Ian Batten]

> 

> Nope.  tried that when getting the spec approved.  Approximate times weren't allowed.  UTC times were required.  There was no way to indicate approximate time in the user interfaces present (how do you blink a 5071A anyway :).  The other systems that interfaced to ours had a fixed format, and required UTC and not approximate UTC for a while and then a possible jump in time to actual UTC.


Well, if the use-case is navigation (Loran, military) then UTC sans leap seconds isn't much use to you anyway, so the "solution" of dropping them would take your requirement with it, and you'd seen something closer to UT1.  And of course, requirements are simply line items on an invoice, and if deriving immediate UTC costs 10X rather than X, the customer has to make a decision on whether they're prepared to pay for it.  Just saying "my customer demands X and therefore the rest of you need to enable X" isn't realistic.

ian