
Sorry it's taken me so long to get round to this. The last WG14 meeting agreed, in principle, that a work item could be started on new time facilities for C. The result of the work item would be a Normative Amendment that would add these facilities to the language. There was no objection to the proposal that the facilities be designed "from the ground up"; they do not have to be based on the existing <time.h> functions. Where do we want to go from here ? -- Clive D.W. Feather | Work: <clive@demon.net> | Tel: +44 20 8371 1138 Internet Expert | Home: <clive@davros.org> | Fax: +44 20 8371 1037 Demon Internet Ltd. | WWW: http://www.davros.org | Mobile: +44 973 377646

Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1999 17:23:18 +0100 From: "Clive D.W. Feather" <clive@demon.net> The last WG14 meeting agreed, in principle, that a work item could be started on new time facilities for C.... Where do we want to go from here ? As seems clear from discussions on the tz mailing list, we need to establish the scope of the new time facilities. This can include: * Better time zone support (e.g. multiple time zones, a more realistic model of daylight saving time) * Better calendrical support (e.g. conversion to day numbers) * Better support for realtime applications (e.g. benchmarking) Only the first item is on-topic for the tz mailing list; perhaps a new mailing list should be established for the C0x time API. Here is is some current work in this area, which can be the start of the discussion. D. J. Bernstein, libtai ftp://koobera.math.uic.edu/www/libtai.html (1998-10-13) C9x committee, Date and time <time.h> [proposed extensions] section 7.23 of WG14/N843 committee draft (1998-08-03) http://anubis.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc22/open/n2794/n2794.txt Paul Eggert, DRAFT Modernized <time.h> API for ISO C (1999-08-27) http://www.twinsun.com/tz/timeapi.html Markus Kuhn, Proposed new <time.h> for ISO C 9X (1999-04-02) http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/c-time/ David Tribble, Proposal for ISO C and C++ Extended-Range Time Type (1998-07-14) http://www.flash.net/~dtribble/text/c0xtime.htm

I can set up a new list tomorrow. What would be a good name? time.h? c-time? c9x-time? c200x-time? :-) ---Dan

Date: 31 Aug 1999 19:18:44 -0000 From: "D. J. Bernstein" <djb@cr.yp.to> I can set up a new list tomorrow. What would be a good name? time.h? c-time? c9x-time? c200x-time? :-) Any API changes are too late for draft C9x, which (despite its name) is carved in stone. I believe the C standards committee informally calls the next version C0x, so c0x-time might be a good name. Clive Feather would be a good person to ask, since he's on the ISO C committee and knows their naming scheme; I'll CC this to him.

Paul Eggert said:
I can set up a new list tomorrow. What would be a good name? time.h? c-time? c9x-time? c200x-time? :-)
Any API changes are too late for draft C9x, which (despite its name) is carved in stone. I believe the C standards committee informally calls the next version C0x, so c0x-time might be a good name. Clive Feather would be a good person to ask, since he's on the ISO C committee and knows their naming scheme; I'll CC this to him.
Make it c-time. This work doesn't have to wait for C0X - it can go in as a Normative Addendum to C9X. -- Clive D.W. Feather | Work: <clive@demon.net> | Tel: +44 20 8371 1138 Internet Expert | Home: <clive@davros.org> | Fax: +44 20 8371 1037 Demon Internet Ltd. | WWW: http://www.davros.org | Mobile: +44 973 377646

I've set up a c-time mailing list. To subscribe, send an empty message to c-time-subscribe@list.cr.yp.to ---Dan

On the tz mailing list, message <199908311821.LAA08557@shade.twinsun.com>, Paul Eggert <eggert@twinsun.com> wrote:
Here is is some current work in this area, which can be the start of the discussion.
[proposals from D.J. Bernstein, C9x committee, Paul Eggert, Markus Kuhn, David Tribble] I also think that the work of POSIX.1b (Section 14: Clocks and Timers) should be considered. (I am _not_ saying that it should dictate how the C API should look, merely that the problems which it attempts to address should be taken into consideration.) --Ken Pizzini

I also think that the work of POSIX.1b (Section 14: Clocks and Timers) should be considered.
I couldn't find a URL for a copy of this on the Web, anyone have a link? FWIW, Many of the calls from this standard can be viewed from the man pages of Compac Unix available on the web at http://btrzxd.fddi.uni-bayreuth.de/MAN/MAN3/INDEX.HTM For example click through to clock_* fucntions and timer_* functions. HTH, -Paul H.

Paul Hill wrote on 1999-09-01 16:06 UTC:
I also think that the work of POSIX.1b (Section 14: Clocks and Timers) should be considered.
I couldn't find a URL for a copy of this on the Web, anyone have a link?
It is all online. All the relevant links have been collected in the reference section of http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/c-time/ and you should study every quoted reference there very carefully if you are not already familiar with it. Markus -- Markus G. Kuhn, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK Email: mkuhn at acm.org, WWW: <http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/>
participants (6)
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Clive D.W. Feather
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D. J. Bernstein
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Ken Pizzini
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Markus Kuhn
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Paul Eggert
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Paul Hill