Dec. 8, 1994
3:59 p.m.
Doug Gwyn <gwyn@arl.mil> writes:
UNIX "system time" is *unaffected* by Daylight Saving Time; it always counts clock ticks since a fixed epoch, which progresses unformly regardless of legislative actions. The mapping to/from human-being time is performed by library functions that can be instructed as to the exact rules to be applied
Do you believe this concept should be extended to leap seconds? The `ado' time package proves such an extension is feasible. (The only slight problem I've seen in practice is with programs that assume every minute has 60 seconds.) However, POSIX seems to legislate the possibility away, and the NTP implementors seem to favour a complex system that jumps the clock. Bradley