[LEAPSECS] Leap Seconds schedule prior to 1972

[John Sauter]

On Fri, 2016-04-22 at 01:59 -0700, Hal Murray wrote:
> John_Sauter at systemeyescomputerstore.com said:
> > 
> > I agree that publishing a table is a good idea.  Any suggestions
> > on the format? 
> ntpd knows how to parse a file with times when leap seconds did
> and/or will 
> happen.  Sample here:
>   http://www.ietf.org/timezones/data/leap-seconds.list
> It's got enough comments to explain what's going on.
> 
> It's using NTP time - relative to 1 January 1900, 00:00:00
> 
> You could use the same format with negative numbers for before 1900
> or pick 
> your own starting point.
> 
> 

I like using DTAI instead of Delta T in the second column, since DTAI
is based on TAI, which drives UTC, whereas Delta T is based on TT.
 However, I don't like the coding for the first column.  It goes
negative before 1900, as you mentioned, and it seems too NTP-oriented.
 How about just using the Julian Day Number?  Column 1 can be the
Julian Day Number of the extraordinary day, column 2 can be the new
value of DTAI reached at the end of the day, and the text after the #
can be the date spelled out.  Since DTAI is defined as 0 on January 1,
1958, an entry would be

2436204 0 # 31 Dec 1957

Strictly speaking, Julian Day Number 2436204.0 is noon on December 31,
1957, but we are just using the number to specify the day, not to
specify the time within that day.

What do you think?
    John Sauter (John_Sauter at systemeyescomputerstore.com)
-- 
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