On Jun 29, 2011, at 8:57 PM, Russ Allbery wrote:
Paul Koning <paul_koning@Dell.com> writes:
"Remove leap seconds from UTC" is clearly absurd, and I'm baffled that ACM would lend its good name to such a notion. UTC is defined as atomic time plus leap seconds, for good and sufficient reasons. And as was pointed out, TAI already exists for those who want atomic time plain, without leap seconds.
That isn't really what the ACM article says. Insofar as it makes an argument, it's arguing for just never declaring another leap second and letting UTC drift, possibly fixing that with a time zone change at the point at which enough error has accumulated to shift time by an hour. It isn't arguing for undoing any of the leap seconds that we've already been through.
Thanks. Interesting. That's certainly one way to "kick the can down the road".
The alternative proposal is that leap seconds be declared twenty years in advance ...
Is that actually possible? paul