[LEAPSECS] Future time

[Warner Losh]

On Jan 19, 2014, at 1:58 PM, Michael Spacefalcon wrote:


> John Hawkinson <jhawk at MIT.EDU> wrote:

> 

>> Suppose a user enters an event in my calendar for 3:00pm US/Eastern on

>> August 1, 2014.

>> 

>> Then a leap second happens.

>> 

>> If my calendar software changes my event to start at 2:59:59pm 

> 

> Scenarios like the above are precisely the reason why I, Markus Kuhn

> and Google Leap Smear users have been telling you all along that is

> wrong to use Newtonian/Einsteinian time when the real need is for

> *civil* time instead.


First, you give me too much credit for power...

Second, you are breaking one of the aspects of time that is important for some application (you introduce a frequency error). This is no different than repeating a second or other measures that break time, only in your problem domain fewer things break. It papers over the problem in some ways, but causes problems for others, for which you propose "just use a different time scale."

But multiple time scales generally ends badly, or you eventually need to know the total number of leap seconds to translate from your special time scale to UTC. Having been there and done that it doesn't end well...

So I'm happy that you found a solution for your problems, but don't be so blind to think that it is an acceptable solution to all problems.

Warner