[LEAPSECS] Leap second mess at NASA

[Rob Seaman]

Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:


> It is a good and instructive example of how leap seconds makes life more difficult for programmers.


Rather, it is a good example of how the real world unfortunately has a tendency to make life more difficult.  And I doubt the suffering of programmers is top of the list for motivating the actions of the ITU-R.

Leap seconds are a means to an end.  The issue in front of the ITU-R is not leap seconds, but rather the midcourse redefinition of UTC.  The fact of a timescale with one definition before a given date and an entirely different definition after that date is itself an engineering issue that will have to be handled by software systems indefinitely.

Rob Seaman
National Optical Astronomy Observatory