Re: millisecond time format

[Hans-Bernhard B. <HBB...@t-...>]

Ethan Merritt wrote:

> Currently the internal representation of time is an integer number
> of seconds. 

Not really.  time_t of the Standard C library is an integer, typically 
seconds since 1970-01-01 --- but our own time routines don't use that. 
Instead we use a double to hold seconds since 2000-01-01.

For those who look at the code: please be aware that this matter is 
confused quite a bit by a long since aborted attempt to use the Standard 
C routines by proxy.  Make sure you're looking at the right part of the 
giant #ifndef USE_SYSTEM_TIME around half of time.c.

> What are the conflicts between the requirements of
> degrees/minutes/seconds for spherical coordinate representation
> and hours/minutes/seconds for time representation?

In a nutshell: the different ranges for degrees vs. hours, including 
negative values, and the tendency of wanting the signs printed as 'N', 
'S', 'W', or 'E' instead '+'/'-'.