[LEAPSECS] Actual versus legal duration makes programming hard

[Steve Allen]

On Mon 2015-06-01T17:36:34 +0000, Poul-Henning Kamp hath writ:
> In message <20150601172537.GC14952 at ucolick.org>, Steve Allen writes:
>
> >We need a resolution of the issue so that the out-of-the-box defaults
> >can just work without any choices.
>
> I'm happy that you have finally realized why some parties are pushing
> for the only resolution on the table[1] which makes that possible:
>
> Stop inserting leap-seconds into UTC.

I will continue to disagree about the wording of that.

The notion behind UTC with leap seconds has been a failure, whether
evaluated technically or by most other criteria.  I see no way to
rescue a technically workable UTC from the 15 year long flamewar that
has prevented any progress on the issue.

The CPM has put method A2 on the table for the WRC-15 as a way of
rescuing what is technical while allowing the ITU-R to get out of the
rest of the mess that the CCIR made in the 1970s when it pushed UTC
with leap seconds onto other international agencies and governments as
the perfect solution to all problems.

> [1] The not-on-the-table resolution which would also make that possible
> is announcing leap seconds with at least 10-20 years advance notice.

I think that leaves most folks less happy than the status quo.

The ITU-R must perform the trick of getting the illusion of consensus,
but I direct everyone to look at the Final Acts of WRC-12
https://www.itu.int/pub/R-ACT-WRC.9-2012

Before any of the Articles, Resolutions, and Recommendations there are
37 pages of "Declarations and reservations" followed by 13 pages of
"Additional Declarations and Reservations" wherein just about every
nation claims that it may refuse to follow any of the agreements if
those affect their sovereignty.  One tenth of the pages in that
publication are dedicated to saying that there may not really be
any agreement about the rest.

UTC is not a technical standard, it is a political construct.
That's why LORAN-C, GPS, Galileo, BeiDou, and the Indian satellite
system chose to construct their own time scales rather than to use UTC.

--
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