Re: how do computer people want their time clocked?

From: Garrett Wollman <wollman_at_khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu>
Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 15:05:43 -0400 (EDT)

<<On Mon, 28 May 2001 16:23:54 +0200, "Deckers, Michael" <Michael.Deckers_at_FUJITSU-SIEMENS.COM> said:

> Is monotonicity really good enough for those who
> cannot afford the access to a smooth timescale such as TAI or
> GPS time, or do those people need a timescale that is continuous
> as well (one without jumps), such as the proposed UTS?

The requirement that I've heard most commonly is much simpler: there
must be 86,400 nominal seconds per nominal day, and nominal days must
be the same ordinal and duration as provided by local law and custom.
(It is considered acceptable in most cases for seconds to vary
somewhat in length, and that is how must existing time-synchronization
systems avoid discontinuities.)

The POSIX specification makes the former requirement explicit, by
giving a formula purporting to relate ``seconds since the epoch'' to a
civil date and time (not accounting for time zones).

-GAWollman
Received on Tue May 29 2001 - 12:15:53 PDT