[LEAPSECS] Changing the name of UTC

[Sanjeev Gupta]

On Fri, Oct 17, 2014 at 9:33 PM, Warner Losh <imp at bsdimp.com> wrote:

> I’m afraid that if there are two official time scales, both maintained,
> and both propagated due to contract language, then the “new” one
> without leap seconds would be this oddball thing that nobody actually
> implements or that some people implement and others don’t and we’d
> be left with a mess. Perhaps not the same mess we have today, but
> a new, different mess.
>

I agree with your problem definition, but I do not think your solution to
redifine "UTC" is the best way forward.

I have seen examples of people (software programers) who coded 18:25 when
they meant 18:15, to refer to the quarter hour after 6pm.  The solution to
this is (in my view) not redefining an hour to be 100 mins, but re
stressing that units matter.  And this has happened multiple times,
sometimes repeatedly within the same team (English was not their native
language, but that is neither here nor there)

Unfortunately, in most cases, my pointing out the error was met by, "Oh,
OK, we will fix that, stop nitpicking".

I am not saying the current status is not fraught with corner cases, and
your solution to drop Leap Seconds may well be the least evil method.  It
still pains me to have to say "UTC before 2021 was loosly coupled to the
sun, but now it floats freely"

-- 
Sanjeev Gupta
+65 98551208     http://www.linkedin.com/in/ghane
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