Re: Time Pedantry (was Re: [SLUG] Which bank doesn't use Linux servers?)

[Jamie Wilkinson <jaq@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 1 April 2010 16:56, Daniel Pittman <daniel@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Nick Andrew <nick@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>> On Thu, Apr 01, 2010 at 03:39:00PM +1100, Daniel Pittman wrote:
>>
>>> If it was my call, I would probably do the same thing.  Way too many
>>> developers get simple things like "this day has no 2:30AM" or "this day has
>>> two 2:00AMs" wrong.
>>
>> That's why Daylight Savings is fundamentally evil. Too much time data is
>> stored in non-canonical formats.
>
> ...but the real question is if we love or hate the GMT/UTC difference, and
> 23:59:61?

*cough* :60 *cough*

>
>        Daniel
>
> Also, do we hate the earthquake that changed the length of the day for messing
> with our time-keeping?
> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100302084522.htm

Yes.

> (And, finally, for anyone who really wants to despair at the whole thing,
>  I give you "The Long, Painful History of Time", which is the best write-up
>  I know of about the engineering difficulties of the topic:
>  http://naggum.no/lugm-time.html
>  )

I for one am glad such pages exist.  I wish the inventors of time_t had read it.