RE: [boost] Date/Time formal review

From: Jeff Garland (jeff_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-04-16 14:10:09

>  I *strongly* feel that the gdtl
> namespace "plumbing" *must* provide a mechanism for universal
> representation.  Every time system then is free to provide it's own
> representation, but must support translation to and from the universal
> representation.  Templated functions would then allow conversion from any
> time system representation to any other time system representation through
> this universal representation.  With out this, there's little point in

I also once believed this, but I have been convinced that no such 'universal representation' exists.
Just as an example, if I build a 'geological time system' that has a resolution of 1000 years, what
'universal reference system' would I use for conversion to TAI?  Luckily in this case there really
wouldn't be a need to do such a conversion.  Anyway I believe that, each one of these conversion
functions, to operate correctly, depends on the limitations of the particular systems (epoch and
resolution) and hence needs to be considered individually.

So currently there is no infrastructure for this...

Jeff