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Unix time still has issues. It officially pauses for a second when leap seconds happen. You can't actually calculate a delta in seconds between two unix timesta
by doubleunplussed 7y ago
Unix time still has issues. It officially pauses for a second when leap seconds happen. You can't actually calculate a delta in seconds between two unix timestamps without a database of when the leap seconds were.
- zerocrates 7y agoOn calculating a delta, isn't there the exact same problem with UTC timestamps? Unless one of the ends of your delta is the exact 23:59:60 moment, there's no way to account for possible leap seconds in the middle of your range without just having a list of them.
- doubleunplussed 7y agoTotally! Just pointing out that unix timestamps don't solve everything (even before getting to relativity). International Atomic Time (TAI), which differs by UTC by 37 seconds since it doesn't count leap seconds, solves everything I know of. Although the clocks aren't in a single reference frame, the procedure for measuring their differences and averaging them to define TAI is well defined and so sets an objective standard for "what time is it on Earth".