Ashley Yakeley wrote:
Rob Seaman wrote:
They can't be naively automated. The schedule is currently
predictable 6 months in advance. Nobody has objected to a longer
schedule; we're positively giddy to give it a try. NTP is proof of
concept that automation is possible once the schedule is released.
This might encourage software engineers to do the wrong thing, that
is,
hard-code a leap-second table.
Only if the schedule is permitted to change after it is released. For
example, I just got finished updating the eleven cached telescope
schedules for three mountaintops whose data I'm responsible for. I
typically do this on the last day of the month. I let it slide last
night, but halted the data transport system this morning and just
restarted the DTS after updating the schedule.
The point is, I wait until the latest possible moment to update the
schedule (table in whatever format) because procedures elsewhere in
the observatory permit updating the information at any point.
Occasionally I have to update the schedule after it is published.
Procedures even exist for updating the resulting archival holdings
retroactively.
The only thing special about leap seconds is that they more
predictable than a lot of real world situations.
Rob
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