[LEAPSECS] [time-nuts] Leap Quirks
    Rob Seaman 
    seaman at noao.edu
       
    Mon Jan  5 13:16:39 EST 2009
    
    
  
M. Warner Losh wrote:
> So leap seconds are hard, eh?
You know, it isn't as if we haven't been talking about this stuff for  
nine years.  We all know where the bodies are buried.  Leap seconds  
can be a bit awkward.  Not having them is also awkward.  But for most  
purposes, a more frequent update schedule keeps individual updates (of  
whatever sort) below a threshold for causing pain.  Like I said, the  
point of a leap second is to be ignored.
The recent leap second passed (yet again) with no major issues.  That  
being the case, one could use this fact to argue that we're spending a  
lot of effort on a non-issue.  Rather, I'm happy to continue working  
toward a resolution satisfactory to all.  Simply ignoring the issue  
for a thousand years is not satisfactory.
Not to mention that hard problems are the fun ones :-)
However, I tendered the description of a floating point representation  
of sexagesimal values for reasons orthogonal to leap seconds.
Rob
    
    
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