[LEAPSECS] Java JSR-310 TAIInstant class

[Steve Allen]

On 2011 Jan 29, at 09:23, Warner Losh wrote:

> A second minor point: TAI does not exist before this point.  Proleptic TAI is used, but more often TT is used for epochs prior to the present.  I'd just note here that a proleptic TAI is used for dates prior to the 1958 epoch.


The agreement to synchronize on UT2 as of 1958-01-01 was not made
until 1959, so TAI did not really exist at that point either.  If
extrapolation is allowed then the BIH records can take TAI back
to mid 1955 when the UK time broadcasts started being compared
with the first cesium chronometer.  And none of this makes sense
to include in a generic API, for the table lookups necessary to
implement it are painstaking.
                                                                                
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