On Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:50:54 -0600, Mark Post wrote: >-snip- >> Hmmm. No provision for a negative leap second. I guess >> we hope that never happens. > >Because the rotation of the Earth is slowing over time, it most likely never >will be needed. > Do you code to "most likely never"?
True in the long term; there are short term fluctuations. There were two leap seconds in 1972; None from December 31, 1998 until December 31, 2005. During that interval the conventional wisdom (well, as conventional as one can consider John Gilmore) was that the next leap second was likely to be negative. It may yet happen. -- gil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
