[LEAPSECS] USWP7A docs for 2013 September meetings

[Poul-Henning Kamp]

In message <4E52262B71749242AFB45D617BA3A8A0B3B325E00F at NRCWSTHCM1.NRC.CA>, "Red
man, Russell" writes:


>Yes, I do recognize the scale of what I am suggesting, but I believe the

>case is not as clear-cut as that.

>

>Apologies, but for all its undoubted virtues md5crypt is not the most widely

>deployed piece of software.  That credit surely goes to one of Microsoft 

>Windows, Linux, or Android.


...and md5crypt were in all of those.

And in Solaris, AIX, FreeBSD, PHP, Shockwave-Flash, Adobe Acrobat,
Cisco routers, Playstation consoles, televisions, photocopiers ...

At one point md5crypt protected more than half the passwords on the
Internet, including the passwords to all the core routers.

Yes, that was a truly staggering realization for me, because
it was a piece of code I cobbled together in an afternoon.


>This is primarily system software, so my target audience would ideally be

>developers (and their managers) for OS software and time distribution

>software.  These are te people with the actual power to change the system.  


And I talked *excatly* about those, but also about the people who
receive the new OS version, featuring "entirely new timekeeping/timescale
code" and then need to recertify their applications.

As I said:  For anything like what you propose to be viable, the
leap seconds must to be scheduled 5-10 years in advance, so that
the certification can be done on the OS level rather than at the
application level.

Poul-Henning

PS: The difference between you and me seems to be that I have spent
three decades in the business-end of what you propose:   I was
responsible for timekeeping (and much else) in FreeBSD for 15-ish
years and know how impossible it was to get operating systems
developers to cooperate, both intra- and inter-project.   I've also
been involved in things like timekeeping for Denmarks ATC system
so I know a paper-mill when I see it.

PPS: And mind you:  I'm a time-nut, I quite *like* leapseconds, but
based on my experience, I conclude the damage potential does
not justify the expense.


-- 
Poul-Henning Kamp       | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
phk at FreeBSD.ORG         | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer       | BSD since 4.3-tahoe    
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.