[LEAPSECS] Leap second relationship to ISO 8601

[Poul-Henning Kamp]

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In message <alpine.LSU.2.00.1408271650570.23119 at hermes-1.csi.cam.ac.uk>, Tony F
inch writes:
>Brooks Harris <brooks at edlmax.com> wrote:

>> > > For example, a date and time in New York City might be represented
>> > > as 2014-07-04T00:00:00-05:00 [...]
>> >
>> > The former is incorrect.
>>
>> Incorrect where?
>
>The UTC offset in New York at that time was not -05:00 so that cannot be a
>time in New York.

You're missing the quiet genius of 8601 here:

Who said the date and time of the event which happened in New York
were represented on local timescale there at the time ?

It would have been if you had written some ...EST or ...DST, and
that would take you into the murky swamp of the olsen timezone
database.

By explicitly stating the UTC offset numerically, 8601 decouples
it from any cultural basis it might have had and becomes a standalone
representation of a moment in time.

-- 
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