Re: [LEAPSECS] Introduction of long term scheduling

From: Rob Seaman <seaman_at_noao.edu>
Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2007 00:51:57 -0700

Ashley Yakeley wrote:

> As the author of a library that consumes leap-second tables, my ideal
> format would look something like this: a text file with first line
> for MJD of expiration date, and each subsequent line with the MJD of
> the start of the offset period, a tab, and then the UTC-TAI seconds
> difference.

As an author (and good gawd, an editor) of an XML standard and schema
to convey transient astronomical event alerts - including potentially
leap seconds - I'd have to presume that XML would do the trick.

The thread was a discussion of appending enough context to an
individual timestamp to avoid the need for providing historical leap
seconds table updates at all. Someone else pointed out that this
didn't preserve the historical record. I wanted to additionally
point out that the cost of appending the entire leap second table to
every timestamp would itself remain quite minimal for many years, and
further, that even getting rid of leap seconds doesn't remove the
requirement for conveying information equivalent to this table (on
some cadence to some precision).

The complications are inherent in the distinction between time-of-day
(Earth orientation) and interval time. The intrinsic cost of
properly supporting both types of time is quite minimal.

Rob
Received on Fri Jan 05 2007 - 23:52:14 PST