On 2011 Sep 26, at 07:18, <Paul_Koning@Dell.com> wrote:
Because GMT is roughly UT1 while UTC is atomic clock time, and without leap seconds the two drift apart -- right?
Right, and that would create opportunity for legal tests of the sort which have never before been explored. Islamic countries in particular might find the new UTC to be a problem, but the official objections to change have been from UK, China, Canada.
tzdata gives offsets in units of minutes (no support for fractions of a minute -- see for example the comment on Amsterdam Mean Time in the "europe" file). So I guess we'd be good for half a century or so. Or perhaps we'll see the introduction of leap minutes (or leap hours) to replace the former leap seconds... Or "GMT" might end up being legally redefined as meaning UTC rather than (roughly) UT1.
tzdata and tzcode in their current form can already keep a zone aligned with GMT/UT1 to the nearest second. That's shown here http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/leapsecs/right+gps.html although the cumbersomeness of the current representation might trigger desire to streamline the rules. -- Steve Allen <sla@ucolick.org> WGS-84 (GPS) UCO/Lick Observatory Natural Sciences II, Room 165 Lat +36.99855 University of California Voice: +1 831 459 3046 Lng -122.06015 Santa Cruz, CA 95064 http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/ Hgt +250 m