Re: [PATCH] /dev/time for Linux, inspired by Plan 9

Pavel Machek
2009-03-21T22:02:43Z

On Tue 2009-03-17 11:15:09, J.R. Mauro wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 14, 2009 at 12:13 PM, Pavel Machek <pavel@ucw.cz> wrote:
> > On Wed 2009-03-11 10:10:23, Christopher Brannon wrote:
> >> Under Plan 9 from Bell Labs, one queries or sets the system clock by
> >> reading or writing text strings to a special file named /dev/time.
> >> I implemented such a facility for Linux.  A read of /dev/time produces
> >> four decimal numbers: epoch seconds, nanoseconds since start of epoch,
> >> nanoseconds since boot, and nanoseconds per second.  Writing a
> >> decimal number
> >
> > nanoseconds per second?! Just use 123.456 notation.
>
> The point is to be close to Plan 9's interface, in which column 3 is
> "something since boot" and column 4 is "somethings per second" to keep
> programs portable.

I don't think compatibility with Plan9 is worthy goal... especially
when Plan9's interface is unneccessarily ugly.
Pavel
--
(english) http://www.livejournal.com/~pavelmachek
(cesky, pictures) http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/picture/horses/blog.html