[LEAPSECS] Java: ThreeTen/JSR-310

[Gerard Ashton]

I would not fully agree with Tom Van Baak. True, most of the users on 
the planet
have no need for sub-second accuracy, except for systems that they have 
no internal
access to (e.g. GPS). But usually they have a requirement to not be 
presented with
representations that most software cannot handle, such as
11:59:60. A few might have a requirement to deal with such a representation
when they have the misfortune to encounter it.

Many users, or the software they rely on without understanding the 
underlying details,
have a requirement that time increase monotonically, so they may need 
sub-second precision
without needing sub-second accuracy.

Gerard Ashton

On 1/28/2011 3:42 PM, Tom Van Baak wrote, in part:

> I partly ask because for the class of users who are willing to be

> close enough to UTC (say within 1 second), there are no leap

> second issues, ever. This covers most users on the planet. We

> know their PC's, laptops, phones, watches, and email say "UTC",

> but it's really just an 86400 clock that's close enough to UTC.

>

> This flexibility means they are perfectly happy with non-leap

> API's. There is no need for smoothing -- under the API's there

> already is enough jitter, wander, smoothing, NTP, clock setting

> and resetting. In all these cases there is no need for an additional

> layer of micro-step or milli-step smoothing. The user has no

> requirement of sub-second precision and the APIs meet that

> expectation.

>

> /tvb