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That's what TAI is for: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Atomic_Time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Atomic_Time The problem is not ever
by tjohns 11y ago
That's what TAI is for: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Atomic_Time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Atomic_Time
The problem is not everyone uses NTP, and not everyone has network connectivity. So we have to support folks inputting the time manually. Trying to go from that backwards to TAI (possibly with an incomplete/nonexistent table of leap seconds) makes for some rather messy logic.
- ngoldbaum 11y agoEven more than that: some real-world infrastructure does depend on time being synced to the rotation of the Earth. I work in astronomy, and taking leap seconds into account is extremely important for precisely pointing telescopes.
- vbezhenar 11y agoI still think that this complexity must stay where it matters and it must be removed from majority of software. There's a lot of broken code working (or not working) with timezones. Leap seconds are much more subtle thing that most of developers probably didn't even hear. Date/time infrastructure is complex enough and any simplifications will help.
- nullc 11y agoNot just that, but NTP has no TAI support. So even if you'd like your own systems to run without leap seconds, and don't mind the offset with UTC, you're basically on your own-- there is no nice setting you can flip.
- gpvos 11y agoIt is possible to run GPS time-synchronized NTP servers (GPS time is a fixed offset from TAI). You must however make very sure your clients do not confuse your own NTP servers with any public UTC-based ones. http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/leapsecs/right+gps.html http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/leapsecs/right+gps.html