[LEAPSECS] Lets get REAL about time.

[Ask Bjørn Hansen]

On Jan 24, 2012 Mark Calabretta <mcalabre at atnf.csiro.au> wrote:


>>> int tmdiff(const struct tm *tm1, const struct tm *tm2, double *diff);

>>> 

>>> Return the time interval, *tm2 - *tm1, in SI seconds. 

>> 

>> ENOCANDO

> 

> As a further example of the need to handle future dates, consider

> that of producing Gantt charts and the like for project management.

> These do require a time interval and not just the representation

> and ordering of future events.


They need a different "deal with time" API with features appropriate for that.  (Maybe using similar data structures, but likely not at all).


> I don't think you have much hope of getting your realtime_t proposal

> accepted by the wider unix community if ENOCANDO is the best it can

> do for such.


As I read the proposal it was just for a low-level "what time is it now" API that kernels can provide and basic timekeeping things ("infrastructure") can use.  Since the proposal is to keep the system time in a different (but simpler and more basic) time scale than people usually use, it also has functions for converting to other time scales for current time and past dates (showing file stat information, for example).  On an operating system level you rarely need future dates in this format.

This is not a general date and time handling API; just a timekeeping one.


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