Re: Predictable Internet Time

[Phillip Hallam-Baker <[e-mail]>]

On Fri, Apr 21, 2017 at 1:57 PM, Joe Touch <[e-mail]> wrote:

>
>
> On 4/21/2017 10:26 AM, Nico Williams wrote:
> > "Internet time" (that which we use in [new] Internet protocols) should
> > just be TAI.  And every existing Internet protocol should be updated to
> > indicate which time is used in practice, UTC or TAI, regardless of what
> > was originally specified.
> I would be very glad of we defined Internet Time as TAI, but also expect
> all protocols to understand both TAI and UTC if possible.
>
> Joe
>

​To answer the issues raised:

1) POSIX already has this pretty much covered

http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/clock_getres.html​

​int clock_gettime(clockid_t *clock_id*, struct timespec **tp*);​

​So all that is required is to define clock identifiers for:

TAI (The total number of seconds elapsed since the start of the epoch)
UTC (The TAI value adjusted for UTC leap seconds, i.e. number of non leap
second seconds since the start of the epoch)
PIT (The TAI value adjusted for PIT leap seconds)

POSIX already defines constants for CLOCK_PROCESS_CPUTIME_ID, CLOCK_REALTIME


All that is needed is to define the additional ones.


​2) No I did not move the goalposts. My original proposal was to solve the
needless chaos caused be the idiotic notion of changing the definition of
time at six months notice. The stupidity of that notion should be apparent
to all.

3) Screw the astronomers. Pluto is to a planet.​