Re: [art] Predictable Internet Time

[Joe Touch <[e-mail]>]

On 3/28/2017 12:19 PM, Nico Williams wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 28, 2017 at 12:07:38PM -0700, Joe Touch wrote:
>> On 3/28/2017 12:00 PM, Nico Williams wrote:
>>>> AFAICT, wouldn't specing Unix interfaces to the different times below be
>>>> out of scope for the IETF?
>>> Yes and no.
>>>
>>> First, the IETF has and does specify some APIs.  (BSD sockets bindings
>>> for IPv6, GSS-API, and various others.)
>> Only network APIs, AFAICT>
> Network protocols often depend on or relate to time, thus there's a
> nexus.
Mostly they depend on continuous time, which is already pointed out.

>
>>> Regardless, how could we address our time issues without specifying what
>>> amounts to.. type conversions? 
>> *our* time issues are mostly that we need to know the time frame being
>> used, and to appreciate that there's no single solution that can be used
>> to calculate intervals AND correspond to civil time that avoids the need
>> for constantly-updated external information. No closed system is
>> sufficient for that.
> If you can keep track of who needs time in what form...
>
> And if you can't... then what's the point of adding PIT?

I don't think there is. Managing time across systems requires some sort
of coordination, either to unify time units or entire time scales. Once
you recognize that, it's sufficient to use UTC + locale.

Joe