David J Taylor via time-nuts <[email protected]> wrote on Fri,  4 Aug 2017
at 17:18:12 +0100 in <90765FA83DAC4C7EAA06F9A781AA5906@Alta>:

> BTW: you refer to "GPS time".  Not my area of expertise, but GPS
> time and UTC aren't the same - GPS time doesn't use leap-seconds,
> for example, so it's many seconds off from NTP.

We've been though this before, but I'll say it again.
This is not a very helpful thing to say.

"GPS time" is a very bad phrase to use, because it can mean "UTC derived via 
GPS," which is what most people mean. This accounts for leap seconds as most 
people expect. It is what essentially all consumer GPS receivers will display. 

But "GPS time" can also mean "GPS system time," the internal time used by the 
GPS system that does not include leap seconds. It is extremely rare that 
anybody means this, but it does happen (esp. on time-nus). And many GPS 
receivers can be convinced to display GPS system time.


So, please don't say "GPS time," because it is ambiguous. But please also don't 
suggest that when people say "GPS time" they must mean "GPS system time," 
because they rarely do and it's just an unnecessary bit of confusion.

[email protected]
  John Hawkinson
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