I think this is because GPS is one of the systems which was designed robustly with the notion that configuration changes are a routine part of the operation, so a leap second is just another routine change.
It's not just GPS. In general any system today that already has an automatic or manual method to handle leap seconds will be fine if no leap seconds were to be announced in the future. This includes GPS, NTP, international time codes (e.g., DCF77, WWVB), PC's running any OS, etc. These systems already go years with no leap second (there were none for 7 years after 1999). To them, eliminating leap seconds is the same as not having a leap second for a while, a very long while. As you know, the only trouble will be with systems that, for valid or accidental reasons, use UTC when they mean UT1, or assume that |DUT1| is always less than 1 s. But the varying levels of pain that result will be spread very gradually over many decades as DUT1 grows beyond a second, to tens of seconds, to minutes. Speculating what will happen to timekeeping over centuries or millennia is another matter. We all know even the existing system of UTC will become awkward when leap seconds are needed every month, or every week, or every day, etc. I have no idea how to solve that; or if anyone today has an obligation, or right to. /tvb _______________________________________________ LEAPSECS mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs
