[open-cobol-list] FW: (SC22WG4-X3J4.1169) RE: (COBOL and) Leap Second at end of 2008

[Bill Klein]

to: OpenCOBOL list

 

Chuck Stevens corrected me, but as he is not registered for the OpenCOBOL list, his reply did not make it to the list.  Therefore, I am forwarding this correction to the list.

 

See below

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From:  Charles Stevens
Sent: Thursday, January 01, 2009 7:15 PM
To: William Klein;

A caution:  My understanding of the 2002 draft is that neither the LEAP-SECOND directive nor its general impact on the program is an implementor defined item. 
 
What IS implementor-defined is the maximum value, greater than 59, of the seconds field returned by the ACCEPT statement wth the TIME phrase, and by the CURRENT-DATE and WHEN-COMPILED intrinsic functions, when the LEAP-SECOND directive is ON.  Note that the implementor IS expected to support a value GREATER than 59 in this field (though this minimum maximum doesn't actually appear in the rules for the three contexts).  That means that a compiler that implements the syntax for the directive but retains a maximum value of 59 whether the directive is on or off is not in conformance.     
 
    -Chuck Stevens