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Re:Falsehoods programmers believe about Unix time by lutorm on Wednesday May 15, 2019 @04:30PM (#19923437)
It's a lot easier to test and prepare for something that occurs at least semi-regularly than a monumental event far into the future that is "so far into the future we don't have to worry about it"....
Re:Falsehoods programmers believe about Unix time by wmf on Wednesday May 15, 2019 @05:38PM (#19924041)
If we abolish leap seconds (and any other changes to UTC) and let the error accumulate until it hits 30 minutes then a 1-hour time zone change can adjust for it. Time zone changes happen at least semi-regularly so it wouldn't be monumental.
Re:Falsehoods programmers believe about Unix time by tinus_hn on Thursday May 16, 2019 @07:02PM (#19934336)
It would take millennia for such an error to accumulate. Leap seconds are inserted less than once a year and 30 minutes is 1800 seconds.
Re:Falsehoods programmers believe about Unix time by bloak on Friday May 17, 2019 @09:51AM (#19939564)
Falsehoods programmers believe about leap seconds: 1. The rate at which leap seconds are inserted will remain roughly constant. [...]

The Earth's rotation is slowing down (by about 2 ms per day per century), so the difference between TAI and UT1 is increasing quadratically, not linearly.

Re:Falsehoods programmers believe about Unix time by quickthrower2 on Wednesday May 15, 2019 @11:04PM (#19925802)
Wouldn’t that move the international date line?
Re:Falsehoods programmers believe about Unix time by wmf on Thursday May 16, 2019 @12:29AM (#19926125)
I guess so, but I don't know why that matters.
Re:Falsehoods programmers believe about Unix time by beojan on Thursday May 16, 2019 @07:53AM (#19928084)
The international date line isn't straight in order to avoid land. Moving it would be problematic.
Re:Falsehoods programmers believe about Unix time by killjoywashere on Thursday May 16, 2019 @08:19AM (#19928230)
think of it as ordinal: you're shifting left 1 unit, not moving the line, per se.
Re:Falsehoods programmers believe about Unix time by thefringthing on Thursday May 16, 2019 @09:07AM (#19928621)
Still matters because some places want to make sure it's the same day (according to their local reckoning) as it is somewhere else in particular (usually a major trading partner).
Re:Falsehoods programmers believe about Unix time by beojan on Thursday May 16, 2019 @09:53AM (#19929047)
Or the next town over.
Re:Falsehoods programmers believe about Unix time by beojan on Sunday May 19, 2019 @02:23AM (#19951779)
The other boundaries are a lot straighter.

Imagine what would happen when the International Date Line ends up in the middle of the US.