[LEAPSECS] The ends we seek

[Warner Losh]

On Jan 18, 2012, at 6:49 PM, Daniel R. Tobias wrote:


> On 17 Jan 2012 at 23:18, Warner Losh wrote:

> 

>> But it just so happens that this draft changes UTC to match the

>> POSIX definition of time_t where leap seconds don't really exist... 

> 

> It seems to be a rather blatant example of "geek arrogance" to say 

> that, when a tech standard fails to conform to reality, the solution 

> is to redefine reality to match the standard.


I'll point out that leap seconds redefined the reality that time was a uniform radix to be a non-uniform radix was also fairly arrogant, taking thousands of years of use and turning it on its head.  Despite 40 years for people to understand it and implement this widely, that hasn't happened yet.

And it isn't geeks redefining "reality" to match the implementation.  I'm just pointing out that the new definition matches the implementation.

Warner